No work, only publicity campaign during Modi regime: Priyanka Gandhi

RATLAM (MP): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's five-year tenure saw only "publicity campaign" and no work.

Addressing a rally here, hours after Modi spoke at a rally in the area, she also claimed that the PM did not find "even five minutes" in his tenure to solve problems faced by the poor in his constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

She also slammed Modi's "tapasya" remark, saying "tapasya" (hard work) destroys arrogance, but the arrogance of the Modi government had grown too big.

In a recent media interview, Modi had said that his image was not created by the " Khan Market gang" (located in Delhi), but his 45-year tapasya (hard work).

"Modi ki chhavi, Delhi ke Khan Market ke gang ne nahi banayi hai, Lutyens Delhi ne nahi banayi hai. 45 saal ki Modi ki tapasya ne chhavi banayi hai...You cannot dismantle it," Modi had said.

"Normally, political leaders should talk about real issues during campaign, like problems of people and how could they be solved, about what will they do in the next five years and what they did in the last five years," she said.

"But during the last five years a strange 'silsila' (sequence) is on. Only campaigning is going on, no actual work was done," she said.

This "tapasvi" prime minister did not secure farmers, youth and the weak of the country, she said.

"This government's arrogance has grown so much that he (Modi) reaches out to you only during (election) rallies. He did not find even five minutes in five years to go to the home of a poor person or farmer in his own constituency Varanasi and tell what he could do to solve their problems through his government," she said.

She accused the prime minister of talking about "big and random things" and not about the BJP's "unfulfilled" poll promises.

"Be alert, an effort is on to delude you and you are being used politically. You have made all the politicians, so try to understand your strength. Your vote is important, don't waste it," she told the gathering.

Democracy was under threat as the peoples voice was being muzzled in India, she said.

When farmers raise their voices, they are fired upon," she said, referring to the 2016 Mandsaur police firing in which six farmers lost their lives.

"When tribals protest, they are suppressed and when young people demand their rights, their voices are silenced, she said.

In Uttar Pradesh when women protested, they were beaten up and jailed, she said. This is not democracy, she added.

Modi was mum over suicide of 12,000 farmers in his five-year rule, the Congress leader said.

When farmers marched to Delhi to meet Modi, he did not have even five minutes for them, she said. "But he has ample time to visit America, China, and Japan and meet their presidents .. besides European leaders she added.

Accusing the BJP of weakening the Land Acquisition Act, she said the BJP should learn from the Congress-led government in Chhattisgarh which has returned unused land acquired by industrialists to tribals.

Earlier in the day, she offered prayers at the famous Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain and held a road show as she kicked off her campaign for the fourth and last phase of Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh.