The BJP on Saturday took on the Congress on the corruption issue after Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking the country to a “medieval past” in his maiden speech as Congress president at the AICC headquarters in the national capital. “The Congress has been ejected from power both from the Central and state governments due to its egregiously corrupt image and abysmal record in governance,” BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said. “The Congress party’s scurrilous attempts in repeatedly raising bogies of intolerance have been rejected by the people who are mesmerized by positive and futuristic governance of the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. “Today, the Congress is a diminished political entity and has ceased to be a national political force that it used to be.” Rao’s remarks came in response to Rahul’s criticism of the ruling BJP as a “vehicle of hate”. Another BJP spokesman, Sambit Patra, pointed at the conviction of former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda in a coal scam case to dismiss the new Congress president’s barbs. “A new president or an old president, the working style of Congress party, the corrupt ways of Congress party still remain the same. Congress is not an ancient thought process as claimed by a few. Rather, Congress is a corrupt thought process and that has been proved by the judicial process today,” Patra said. Koda was the Jharkhand chief minister with the Congress’s support. Rao also called the celebrations at AICC headquarters on Saturday a “non-event”, as Rahul was “already leading the party”. He tweeted, “Who says @INCIndia doesn’t know event management? When was a “Non-Event” celebrated with such great fervour & on such scale? Rahul Gandhi was already leading his party. If the celebration is for the “certificate”, it makes sense. Certificates are hard to come by.”
