Modi government trumpeting more than working: Congress

Terming it as a government of "self, selfies and selfishness", the Congress on Tuesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government for trumpeting more than actually working in the last one year.

"This one year has been a government of self, selfies and selfishness. If the government would have done some work, they would not have needed to do so many rallies... their work would have spoken for itself," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference here.

"The Modi government has turned out to be just an event management company. They are trying to fool people by branding themselves," Surjewala said.

The Congress leader said if the central government would have done some real work then they would not have had to fan out across the country to tell people about their achievements. "Their work would have shown."

The Congress, which was reduced to a mere 44 seats in the Lok Sabha in the last general elections, released a short video on the turnarounds made by the Modi government in the last one year.

It also released a booklet which it named as the report card of the Narendra Modi-led government and termed the government as a "failure".

The booklet lists the "failures" of the Modi government and contains point by point rebuttals by the Congress on the achievements claimed by the NDA.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said "earlier we thought the BJP had two faces. But now we see it has many faces".

Azad also questioned the government for not appointing heads to many institutions, where posts have been lying vacant.

These include the Defence Research Development Organisation, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian council for Medical research (ICMR), as also the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

"They are saying there has been no corruption... if you silence the police who will tell you if there is any stealing or looting happening?" he said.

"The prime minister's letter to country-men is full of contradictions and far from truth," Azad said after which he proceeded to give point by point rebuttals to claims made by Modi in his letter to people.

The senior Congress leader said that though the government claims that inflation has come down, prices of most essential commodities have increased.

"The government has cut the allocation for the social sector and failed to do justice to the rural economy," he added.

Congress leader of the house in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that the government failed in all respects including on skill development and employment generation.

"People are not fools. This is a government of fears, tears and no cheers," he said.

He also accused the government of creating more polarization along communal lines.

Azad also questioned the government on its claims of providing a clean administration.

"Only 30 percent of the council of ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves (17 percent of them are facing cases of attempt to murder, insight in communal disharmony, and electoral violations).

He also faulted members of the ruling party of making controversial statements. "While one BJP leader said that whosoever opposes Modi will have to go to Pakistan, one minister of state announced rethink on an abbreviation of article 370."