No ‘sheesh mahal, AAP-da’ jibes in PM Modi’s Rajya Sabha speech, focus back on Congress | India News – The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Two speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament in the space of two days … first a day before the Delhi assembly elections and the second a day after voting in Delhi was over. What was the difference?
Well, the second speech had no references to “sheesh mahal” and “AAP-da” unlike the first one in Lok Sabha during which these two terms were used quite a few times by the Prime Minister. The focus in Rajya Sabha was back on the Congress, and in full force, as it has been in the past in most of the Prime Minister’s speeches.
In his reply to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi had targeted both Congress, AAP and took digs at their leaders Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal over a range of issues without taking any names.
The terms “sheeshmahal and AAP-da” – which were used extensively by the Prime Minister and other BJP leaders during campaigning for Delhi assembly elections – were used in the Lok Sabha speech quite a few times.
“Sheeshmahal” was a reference to BJP’s charge of splurge of public money by Arvind Kejriwal in the renovation of his CM house. The BJP had released several videos showing Kejriwal’s extravagance and opulence in CM house. On the other hand, the term “AAP-da” was used by PM Modi in his election rallies to suggest that the AAP government in Delhi was a disaster for its people.
In his Lok Sabha speech, PM Modi said: “Some leaders are focusing on Jacuzzi and stylish showers in homes, but our focus is on providing water to every home. After 75 years of independence, 70-75% of the country’s population, i.e. more than 16 crore households, did not have tap water connection. Our government has provided tap water to 12 crore families in 5 years and that work is progressing rapidly.”
Referring to his government’s resolve of helping the poor, PM Modi said “Earlier, the headlines of the newspapers used to be related to scams and corruption. 10 years have passed and crores of rupees have been saved which has been used for the public. We have taken several steps which have saved a lot of money, but we have not used that money to build a ‘sheesh mahal’, instead we have used that money to build the nation.”
Later, in his speech discussing the government’s resolve to help the youth, PM Modi said: “We have been working continuously by keeping the future of youth in mind. But there are a few parties that are deceiving the youth. They promise allowances at the time of elections but do not fulfill those promises. These parties are ‘AAP-da’ on the future of youth.”
All these references in Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha speech were oblique references to Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party which was in direct contest with the BJP in Delhi assembly elections. Delhi voted for a new assembly on February 5.
PM Modi’s second speech today, in Rajya Sabha, did not mention these terms even once. There was no reference to “sheesh mahal” or AAP-da in the entire speech. Prime Minister Modi was once again unsparing in his attacks on the Congress.
The Prime Minister accused the Congress of adopting a policy of ‘family first’ and appeasement. He criticised the grand-old-party for having “hatred and anger” towards BR Ambedkar and said this was reflected in not giving due recognition like the ‘Bharat Ratna’ to the architect of India’s Constitution.
PM Modi also hit out at the economic policies of the Congress government and the ‘licence quota raj’ that gave rise to corruption and affected the country’s economic progress and growth.
He also said the entire Hindu community was blamed and its image tarnished across the world for the economic mismanagement and wrong policies of the Congress ‘royal family’ that led to slow growth, which was coined as the ‘Hindu rate of growth’.
The Prime Minister also targeted the Congress government for imposing Emergency in the country during which the entire opposition was put behind bars and hand-cuffed. He also cited several examples of film stars, singers and writers against whom action was taken for not lauding the Congress during that time.
Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders, he said those carrying copies of the Constitution have scant respect for it as he recalled how Nehru amended the Constitution during his first stop-gap government curtailing the freedom of speech and expression of common people and did not even wait for elections in doing so.