Rahul hits back over Modi's 'earthquake' remarks

Modi mocks the tragedy of Uttarakhand, says Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, referring to an earlier statement made by the latter that if he would speak in Parliament about the premier’s personal corruption, there would be an earthquake.

“The earthquake finally took place. The Earth (Dharti Ma) was likely angered,” the Prime Minister said in the Lok Sabha in an obvious reference to Rahul’s remark during the winter session of Parliament.

He was replying to a motion of thanks to the President’s address to Parliament on January 31.

Rahul hit back saying: “PM Modi mocks the tragedy of Uttarakhand and insults the freedom struggle, but has no answers to the Opposition’s questions.” The PM’s jibe aimed at Rahul came a day after an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Uttarakhand, with tremors felt in Delhi and across north India.

“Narendra Modi should be ashamed of himself for making fun of the earthquake that hit Uttarakhand,” Chief Minister Harish Rawat tweeted after Modi’s speech. During the winter session, in which the Congress-led Opposition did not let Parliament function till the PM explained his controversial note ban decision, Rahul had said he had information about personal corruption of Modi. Later, he cited entries in the Sahara-Birla diaries, already in public domain, to charge that Modi took around Rs 40 crore on nine different occasions from these corporates.

The Supreme Court earlier rejected a petition of activist Prashant Bhushan based on the same documents, saying it did not constitute any evidence. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, had mentioned about the diaries.

The Congress had maintained if Modi had no fear, he should have ordered a fair probe into the Sahara-Birla documents, which were seized by the income tax authorities and mentioned Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit’s name too.