Anand Sharma accuses BJP of political plagiarism

Says BJP simply "copy-pasted" the Congress manifesto in its vision document

Congress leader and Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today alleged that BJP was indulging in "political plagiarism".

Addressing a press conference here, Sharma said that BJP simply "copy-pasted" the Congress manifesto in its vision document.

He also said that voters would keep "the personality cult and authoritarianism" out of power.

"BJP manifesto talks of five 'T's -- tradition, talent, tourism, technology and trade. It also speaks of creating new cities. There are four industrial corridors proposed. The Mumbai-Delhi corridor, which is in progress, is the second largest infrastructure project in the world," Sharma said.

"We have always been traditional because of our ancient culture; there is no dearth of talent in our country; trade is going on since the Silk Route; and as far as technology is concerned, we have reached the Mars and (are) also making satellites. What are the BJP and Modi talking about?"

"BJP has indulged in political plagiarism," he said.

Hitting out at BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Sharma said, "When Modi speaks, there is only hatred and anger. There are no expressions of sensitivity, pain on his face."

He also accused RSS and BJP of spending Rs 10,000 crore to make Modi the Prime Minister.

Sharma however said that Congress was a little late in exposing Modi's "false Gujarat model of development projections".

He also countered BJP's argument that government should order a probe if it suspected that the party's campaign was excessively expensive, saying that Modi knew very well that a probe cannot be ordered during the elections, and therefore he was making such statements in his "fixed" media interviews.