Modi superficial, divisive: Rahul Gandhi

Sharpening his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused him of being “superficial” and also of undertaking a “poisonous” campaign along with RSS with the main aim of “dividing” Hindus and Muslims during polls.

The Congress vice-president also alleged that Mr Modi “lacks understanding of things” and that he makes “big media celebrations” around “his ideas”.

Addressing the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee executive meeting here, he said Mr Modi does not want to go into details and likes to do his politics based on events.

Citing an example, he said the PM had called up Congress president Sonia Gandhi and informed her about the signing of the Naga accord, when none of the chief ministers of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam knew about it.

“None of the chief ministers — Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam — knew about it. His home minister does not know and soon we find out that there was no such accord and that the Prime Minister was actually not aware of what is going on.”

“Somebody told the Prime Minister that the accord has been signed and PM told the Congress president that an accord has been signed,” he said. “So there is a superficiality in the way he uses the government,” Mr Gandhi said.

Mr Gandhi alleged that the main aim of Mr Modi and RSS was to divide Hindus and Muslims during elections. “This was clear with their approach, whether it was Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and to some extent in Kerala and West Bengal,” he said.

Mr Gandhi also said BJP undertakes two type of campaigns, one on development and the other an “underground poisonous campaign”.

He said Congress was standing up to the challenge, organising itself and defeating BJP. The best example is the victory of the Grand Alliance in Bihar, he added.

“He (Mr Modi) comes up with ideas and makes big media celebrations around that idea and then after that moves on to to the next idea,” he said.

Hitting out at the Mr Centre, Gandhi said the NDA government had failed to move the economy and “businessmen are of the feeling that nothing is happening”.

He referred to Mr Modi’s description of NREGS launched by the Congress as a “useless” programme, while others, including the finance minister describing it as a good scheme, saying “This shows that there is a certain amount of hollowness and lack of understanding on what is going on.”

Mr Gandhi also mentioned about the visit of Mr Modi to Nepal and alleged that “within months after the PM visit, the relationship with that country was destroyed.”