Narendra Modi's record on sports, education is dismal: Congress returns fire

New Delhi: Congress leaders have hit back at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who during a rally in Pune yesterday, said that the party is hiding behind the 'burqa of secularism'. Ajay Maken, the head of the Congress' Communications Department, spoke to the media today.

Here are the highlights:

• In any democracy, the topic of 'development' is important
• Modi said we are performing poorly in the field of sports. As a sports Minister I would like to comment
• Narendra Modi has been Gujarat Chief Minister for over 10 years, what did he do for sports in the state?
• 83 people qualified for Olympics. How many of them were from Gujarat?
  
• Of the over 1000 gold medals in the National Games, Gujarat had 7. Even Chandigarh won 10 gold medals.
  
• People from Gujarat are interested in sports, but as a Chief Minister what has he done?
• He asked how much is spent on education, in relation to GDP
• He should research NDA's term before talking about UPA
• He should talk about what he has done in Gujarat
• 1.6% of GDP was spent during NDA rule and during our term, 4.04% was spent
• In 2011-12, in Gujarat only 13.9% was spent on education and the state was ranked 14 in India
• UPA has taken number of central universities from 17 to 44
• In Gujarat, principals' posts vacant in engineering colleges
• When vacancies aren't being filled, how is he working on the education of his state?
• During our nine years, Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) went up from 62.5% to 82.5% (primary education)
• In Gujarat, net enrollment ratio 48.77%
• On gender gap in literacy rates, Gujarat is ranked 18 in India, far below national average
• In Gujarat, drop out rates in schools are 57%, far above national average
• He said we don't want bill, we want food
• In Gujarat, Mid-day Scheme average 89.94%, national average is 94.02%
• Only two other states are as bad as Gujarat
• In last 10 years GER, up from 12% to 18% (Higher education)
• Under UPA, Literacy rate is up from 64.8% to 74%
• In 2011, Gujarat did not feature in top ten (international tourism)
• In domestic tourism, you will find Gujarat on number 10
• How does Mr Modi advise others on tourism?
• First look at your own state and then proceed to things on the national level
• Under UPA, from 17 central universities, we now have 44, gross enrollment ratio has gone up. There has been poverty reduction of 2% each year
• GDP growth during our term was 7.9%, while during NDA's it was 6%
  
• You state brings no medals into national games
• When your schools don't have principals and teachers, your mid-day meal suffers, keep these things in mind in the future.
• How have you performed?
• I believe the burqa of secularism is way better than the nakedness of communalism
• Yesterday, whatever he said was one-sided
• One needs to answer keeping facts in mind
• If someone states wrong facts, then only one side is portrayed to the country. we are presenting our side.