Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday, 22 November, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he was a "katputli (puppet) in the hands of capitalists."
The cricketer-turned-politician was speaking at a Congress campaign rally in Bhopal ahead of the 28 November Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.
"The prime minister is a 'katputli' of capitalists and he lies. If a farmer fails to repay a loan of Rs 1 lakh, the government beats drums," he said, in an apparent reference to an initiative where bank officials arranged beating of drums to shame defaulters.
“... But when (industrialists) Adani and Ambani do not repay Rs 1.5 lakh crore, you do ‘Pappi-Jhappi’ with them (embrace them). Does the Modi government belong to Adani and Ambani?”Navjot Singh Sidhu
In a jibe at the prime minister's Make In India initiative, he said, "When Rafale jets will come from France and bullet train from Japan, what will people do here? They will fry pakodas."
Claiming that the Modi government did not pay fair prices to farmers for their produce, he said this was not “arthshastra” (economics) but “anarthshastra” (policy of disaster).
Hitting back at Sidhu, BJP Madhya Pradesh spokesperson Sarvesh Tiwari said, "He (Sidhu) has no right to comment on the prime minister. He is himself hungry of power and has no principles, as he jumps from party to party."
People of Madhya Pradesh have launched a scheme called “Change BJP government,” Sidhu claimed. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, popularly known as ‘mama’ (uncle), is in reality ‘Kans Mama’ (a demon from Krishna mythology), he said.
"The Congress is day-dreaming, they will never win the polls in Madhya Pradesh," the BJP spokesperson said.
Some 100 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers joined the Congress in Sidhu's presence on the occasion.
‘Economic Disparity Increased Under Modi Government’
Sidhu also alleged that disparity between the rich and the poor skyrocketed under the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
“Income of industrialists registered a massive increase of 75 percent, while the income of 99 percent of the middle class and common people has declined by one percent in 2017.”Navjot Singh Sidhu
"The economic disparity between the rich and the poor is on rise. Is this a government of capitalists who are one percent or the common people who are 99 percent (of population)," the cricketer-turned-politician said.
The NDA government's move to deregulate diesel in 2014 hit farmers badly as the price of the fuel rose, he said.
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