Cong scales up attack on Modi's I-Day speech

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Aug 16 2014 | 8:05 PM IST
Congress today scaled up the attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address alleging there has not been one word about weaker sections or minorities.
The party also dismissed as "half-baked idea" the plans of the Prime Minister to do away with the Planning Commission.
Party General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed told reporters that Modi, who had blown hot and cold over ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir while he was in the opposition, has "remained silent" on the issue even as the violations continue.
He said similar was the case with Chinese incursions as the Prime Minister is now mum on the issue.
Ahmed said the Prime Minister has not said a word in his speech on the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, extremely backward castes, OBCs and minorities.
He charged this has been done on the instructions of RSS.
Ahmed said reports in a section of a media that the Prime Minister spoke extempore were a "ruse" to project that the Prime Minister forgot to mention something if a controversy arises in the future about exclusion of any matter from his speech.
Dubbing it as a "disappointing" address, the Congress spokesperson wondered over the Prime Minister call's for a moratorium on caste and communal conflict for ten years.
On the plans to do away with the Planning Commission, he said no alternative has been suggested by the Prime Minister.
Ahmed said Modi's address had nothing new. "No new ideas, schemes and initiatives were announced by the Prime Minister," he alleged.
Ridiculing the Prime Minister over the issue of communalism, Ahmed said Modi should remember that the politics of BJP is "based on communalism".
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First Published: Aug 16 2014 | 8:05 PM IST

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