Modi hurls ‘balak buddhi’ barb at Rahul

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday mounted a stinging counterattack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as he mocked him as ‘balak buddhi’ (childish mind), accused him of linking Hindus with violence and making false claims in Lok Sabha, and sought stringent action against him to protect parliamentary democracy.

Replying to a nearly 18-hour-long discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in the Lower House, Modi said the Congress and its “ecosystem” are working day and night to impress upon people that the BJP-led NDA has been defeated in the elections despite voters handing his government a historic third-term for stability and continuity.

“I will tell Congress leaders to not suppress people’s mandate under the garb of fake victory celebrations,” he said and added the opposition party was behaving as if it had won 99 out 100 seats and not out of 543, the actual strength of the House.

The Congress turned into a “parasitic party” in these polls, feeding off its partners’ votes to boost its tally, he said.

Instead of conceding defeat, the Congress is behaving arrogantly, he said, adding its cheerful response to the mandate is like a parent encouraging a child who has fallen off a cycle.

In his nearly 135-minute speech, which saw continuous slogan-shouting on the Manipur issue and heckling by opposition members, Modi turned his usual combative self after initially listing various successes of his government since 2014 as he took on the Congress and Gandhi without naming him.

“The mandate for the Congress is to sit in the opposition and keep shouting once it runs out of logic,” he said.

Asserting that the main opposition party delivered its third worst performance in the national elections and failed to reach 250-mark after the 1984 polls, he took a swipe at Gandhi saying, “Aaj desh inse kah raha hai – tumse na ho payega (Country is telling him that you are not up to it)”.

He said the Congress became a “parasitic party” in these polls as its tally of 99 was largely curtsey its allies, while it performed poorly with a strike rate of merely 26 per cent where the party was pitted directly against the BJP or was the main opposition force.