BJP regime has been most disappointing: Congress

Using irony, sarcasm, poetry and references to popular cinema, the Congress on Thursday described two years of the BJP-led government as a “most disappointing” run. Their reign, the Congress said, was befitting of a mandate won through “playing a fraud on the country”.

In a short film depicting the travails of farmers, unemployed youth, exporters, et al, under the current government, the Congress parodied the BJP’s 2014 poll slogan “ Abki Bar, Modi Sarkar  (this time, for a Modi government)”, calling it “ Abki Bar, Barbaad Ho Gai Yaar  (This Time, We Were Destroyed)” and “ Abki Bar, Desh Ka Bura Hal  (This time, the country is in bad shape)”.

Three Congress veterans – Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal – branded the Centre’s ad blitzkrieg and mega celebrations a “bunch of lies and hyperbole”.

Sibal challenged “any minister in this government, including the PM”, to engage in a public debate with him on his claim that the Centre fared worse than the UPA on every growth criterion. “Dr Manmohan Singh was not a talker. He was a doer. Between 2011-14, the UPA opened 24 crore bank accounts. In 2009, 12 lakh people were given employment. Modi promised jobs to a crore and generated 1.34 lakh jobs last year,” Sibal said. “We now have a PM who delivers a speech every 45 minutes, if a survey is to be believed, and achieves nothing. They believe in exaggeration and lies,” Sibal said. When pointed out that Modi delivers a speech every 45 hours, and not 45 minutes, Sibal said, “Alright, even the Congress should be allowed to exaggerate a little.”

Sibal termed the oft-described “dynamism” in the ruling BJP and the government as “fraudulently dynamic and dynamically fraudulent”, likening Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy to the popular Bollywood number “ kabhi khushi kabhi gham ”. Even the usually reticent Mallikarjun Kharge quoted the iconic poet Mirza Ghalib in his halting Urdu.

“ Ya rab/vo na samjhe hain na samjhenge meri baat/ de aur dil unko jo na de mujhko zuban aur  (She doesn’t comprehend; I will never be able to convince her. Give her a big heart even if you don’t grant me better expression O Lord),” recited Kharge, referring to the inability of the Centre to comprehend the common man’s suffering.

Azad rattled off statistics pertaining to falling industrial production, exports, agriculture and the value of the rupee as he too used couplets to describe the two years. “ Barbaad gulistan karne ko ek hi ullu kaafi tha, har shaakh pe ullu baithe hain anjam-e-gulistan kya hoga  (one owl was enough to destroy the beauty of the garden. What will happen to this garden where owls are sitting atop every branch?)”

“We understand big celebrations are in order at a time when black money is a big issue. I want to know what they are celebrating. The Sensex has risen by 2 per cent while the rupee, which Modi was fond of saying was in ‘ventilator’ during the UPA’s tenure, has fallen another 16 per cent. What have you done with Pakistan which was a stick you constantly beat the UPA with? You invited those sponsoring and transporting terrorism for an inspection to Pathankot. Is this what you are celebrating?” asked the Congress leader.

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