Hungry people cannot be fed by showing God’s picture: Kharge

HYDERABAD: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday made a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and others, saying that a poor man’s stomach cannot be filled by showing him a picture of God.

Kharge, who addressed a meeting of booth-level agents of the ruling Congress in Telangana here, took a dig at Modi alleging that he did not allow veteran BJP leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and also his ministers to take part in the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya.

In an apparent reference to the January 22 consecration of Ram Mandir, Kharge said, “Stomach is not filled by showing a photo of God to people.”

The Congress president trained guns on Modi over the latter’s visits to temples ahead of the consecration and taking a holy dip in the sea.

“During Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s reign, he (Nehru) was a statesman. He was a visionary. He (Nehru) was not like him (Modi), going to the sea and taking a dip. Nehru never used to do such things. He built big factories, big dams, and brought electricity,” he said.

Nehru had said in 1958 that the purpose of the ‘teerth yatra’ (pilgrimage) started after Independence is to enable people to keep their head high and move towards prosperity. “What is Modi ji’s ‘teerth yatra? Never look at the poor,” Kharge said.

On “Modi’s guarantee”, he said advertisements are carried in newspapers.

The Prime Minister had promised two crore jobs and to bring back black money and give Rs 15 lakh, but did not implement them, the AICC president charged.

Kharge also claimed attempts were made to encourage defections and break up parties during the Modi regime. Also, Central agencies like ED and Income Tax were used against political rivals.

The Congress president said 28 parties had come together against the BJP and that the saffron party would be defeated in the polls. Referring to the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said all should support Rahul Gandhi whose endeavour is for the youth, poor, farmers, women and others.

Observing that the hard work of the Congress leaders and activists in Telangana made the party win in the recent assembly polls, Kharge exhorted them to achieve similar results in the Lok Sabha elections too.

Telangana Chief Minister and state Congress president A Revanth Reddy, his cabinet colleagues and

leaders participated.