New Delhi:
Ahead of the Delhi polls on December 4, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a rally in East Delhi's Shahdara today, slamming the Congress on inflation.
Following are the highlights of his speech:- I have been campaigning in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and other states
- I have seen many elections - they are fought by candidates, politial parties.
- But this is the first election where the people are fighting... the voters are fighting election and that is the highest state of democracy.
- Political parties have to present an account of what they have done - pal pal ka hisab dena chaiye, pai pai ka hisab dena chaiye.
- Look at Rajasthan and Delhi. The rulers here are not prepared to be accountable to the people.
- Isn't inflation a vital problem? Shouldn't Congress address this vital issue? All these top leaders didn't ever speak on inflation during their campaign.
- Congress ke neta mehengai ke bare mein bolne ke liye taiyyar nahin hain.
- And it has become fashionable - there are elections in Delhi and Rajasthan and they want Modi to answer questions on Gujarat.
- I must remind them when there were elections in Gujarat a year ago, all this lies have been propagated. Not a stone was left unturned by the people of Gujarat have repeatedly defeated them.
- Congress has a brigade which acts as a protective shield for the party. They ask me what is my vision... no one asks the Congress what their programme is.
- Some people feel that to save the Congress, it is important to attack Modi.
- Whenever there has been a government headed by a capable opposition, inflation has be in check.
- There is inflation when the Congress is in power. For 60 years, they have not considered the development of India a priority and indulged in vote-bank politics.
- It is not a question of policy, there a problem with their intent.
- A Congress leader (referring to Kapil Sibal) who is a minister in the Manmohan Singh government, who believes that he is the most intelligent person - says prices have risen because earlier the poor people used to eat 'sookhi roti' and now they eat two 'sabzis' with roti. Have prices risen bacuse of the appetite of the poor people? This shows the intent of the Congress?
- I don't question the Prime Minister's credentials as an economist... and the Finance Minister is also very learned...These wise men have ruined the country and say they don't want lessons in economics from Modi... they could have learnt from Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
- Neither Narasimha Rao nor Vajpayee were considered economists but knew about the problems faced by the common people.
- The PM's planning commission says if you make Rs. 26 a day you are not poor. The PM and Finance Minister must know that in 26 you can't get 300 grams of onions. That very learned minister had angrily said that it isn't the government's job to sell onions. But wasn't the Delhi chief minister doing just that?
- I want to assure the people of 'Yamunapaar', Dr Harsh Vardhan is one of you and he understands your problems. Don't let the Congress enter this area.
- See how they misguide people? They say electricity in Gujarat is more expensive than in Delhi. In Gujarat till 30 units, the cost per unit is 1:30 but in Delhi 3:90. In Gujarat, till 200 units its 4.57 per unit while in Delhi it is over Rs. 5.
- We give farmers electricity subsidy worth Rs. 3000 crores. The Delhi government doesn't have to do that.
- Madam's lies are being propagated and if I hadn't spoken today, maybe it would have continued.
- The root of all problems is bad governance. The Congress isn't concerned with governance. They think the five years in power must be used to consolidate their vote banks.
- In Gujarat, we have demonstrated a model of one-day governance... just like ODIs in cricket. In Gujarat, for 80 kinds of problems, there are 250 e-governance kiosks which deliver results
- For everything they will keep saying we have given you laws. Maybe tomorrow they'll come out with a law to breathe and drink water.
- The Commonwealth games were an opportunity to enhance our brand. Not just corruption, they lost an opportunity to project Delhi to the world.