Narendra Modi: Congress is a bail-gaadi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said the party is now being called a "bail gaadi" as several of its leaders are out on bail. The dig, a play on the Hindi word for a bullock cart, appeared to be aimed at Congress leaders like Shashi Tharoor who received protection from arrest in his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death case.

"Several leaders who are called stalwarts of the Congress and former ministers are out on bail these days," PM Modi said at a public rally in Jaipur where he pitched for the BJP's re-election in Rajasthan state polls due by the end of the year. He presented the Congress in stark contrast to the BJP, saying, "We have no tolerance towards corruption. All our efforts are aimed at building a new India."

Besides Tharoor, who's anticipatory bail was converted to a regular bail by a court in Delhi in the Sunanda Pushkar case, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are out on bail in the National Herald case of cheating and misappropriation. The Congress responded sharply. "The PM who has brought farmers back to bailgaadi in age of tractor speaks of corruption. Complaints against BJP ministers are not even inquired. When we come to power, it will be inquired [into], and they will not be on bail, but in jail," Congress leader RPN Singh said.

PM Modi also said people were well aware of the "intentions" of the Congress party and criticised it for "questioning the capabilities of the army" - an apparent reference to the surgical strike on terrorist launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 2016. "It is unfortunate that political opponents also committed a sin by raising questions on the capabilities of the army. This has never happened before and the people will not forgive those who are doing this kind of politics," he said. Saying that BJP had the singular agenda of development, he said, "Never forget what the previous government left in Rajasthan."