It is Congress which sows and spews poison, retorts Modi

He said the country is seeking answers from Congress to its issues but its replies are wayward

Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi hit back at Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday over her zeher ki kheti barb, saying it was the Congress that spews poison and reaps the harvest out of it with its divisive politics. “Sonia Gandhi has told Rahul that power is poison. Who has been in power for most of the time during the last 60 years?.. In whose stomach has this poison gone? Who is spewing this poison? Who is harvesting the poison? They (Congress) are the ones who sow the seeds of poison,” the Gujarat chief minister said at a rally here.

He said the country was seeking answers from the Congress to its issues but its replies were wayward. “People are asking Sonia Gandhi why farmers are committing suicide, her reply is people are sowing seeds of poison.”

Modi’s counter-attack came a day after the Congress president, at a rally in Karnataka, accused Modi and the BJP of divisive politics by “sowing seeds of poison” (zeher ki kheti) and instigating violence in their “hunger” for power.     

In his 50-minute speech, Modi attacked the Congress, the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the AAP government in Dehi and sought a mandate in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections by projecting himself as “chowkidar” who will guard public funds.     

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate said he had made Gujarat free of riots and would make UP also riot-free if his government is voted to power.

Accusing the Congress of driving a wedge between states and communities, Modi referred to the Telangana issue and said that the entire Andhra Pradesh is engulfed in the fire started by the manner in which the Congress had handled the issue.     

“It is because they are following a police of divide and rule. You keep sowing seeds of poison and destroying the country.” He compared it with the creation of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government and said that at that time celebrations had taken place.

Referring to the recent incidents in Delhi, Modi said what had happened in the capital of late was not good. "The kind of incidents which are happening, the kind of language being used... India's head has lowered in shame. "Some days back a woman from Africa was insulted," he said referring to the alleged raid by Delhi's Law Minister Somnath Bharti at her residence.