Guj Cong observes 'betrayal day', flays 4 years of Modi rule

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat Congress leader Paresh Dhanani today said the PM had failed to address the demands that he used to raise, as CM, with the UPA government.

Congress workers, wearing black armbands, today observed what the party termed as "betrayal day" across the state.

The party also released a booklet highlighting the Modi government's "betrayal" of the people.

Dhanani, along with state Congress president Amit Chavda and Congress' state in-charge Rajiv Satav, was addressing a joint press conference here on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Modi government assuming power.

The senior Congress leaders attacked the Modi government for failing to fulfil promises made to the public before the 2014 general elections.

"When he was Gujarat chief minister, he had demanded from the UPA government that Narmada Dam project be declared as a project of national importance. He has been PM for four years now, why has it not yet been declared a project of national importance?" Dhanani, Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, asked.

Citing another example, Dhanani said that as chief minister, Modi had demanded that the Centre rename Ahmedabad railway station as "Karnavati" railway station.

"Why has the name of Ahmedabad railway station not yet changed to Karnavati? And why has the headquarters of Western Railway not shifted to Ahmedabad from Mumbai as demanded by you (Modi) in the past?" he further asked.

Dhanani also attacked the government over delay in the completion of Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro rail project.

"The government talks of launching a bullet train, but the metro rail work has been going on for so long and is yet to be completed," he said.

"In the last four years, the Modi government has only used marketing, money and lies to expose itself before the public. Fear is everywhere and corruption is rampant," said Satav.

"Promises made by the Prime Minister four years ago have remained unfulfilled. Farmers are not even getting cost of production, while atrocities against the weak have seen a sharp increase," he further said.

He charged that central agencies like CBI, IB and ED were being misused to target opponents.

The Congress' state president Chavda said that the Centre had only rehashed the policies of the UPA, like FDI and GST among others, and had repackaged them as its own.

Chavda alleged that no concrete steps were being taken to control corruption or price rise under which all sections of society were reeling.

"Weaker sections like Dalits, women, children, farmers and tribals are under attack. The international borders are burning with jawans getting killed almost everyday," he said.