PM hits back at Rahul’s ‘AA’variant jibe, reminds Congress of ‘Tata-Birla ki Sarkar’

“Are the entrepreneurs of our country variant of coronavirus? What are we talking? About whom are we talking,” he said, in reference to Rahul’s remarks.

On February 2, while participating in the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, Rahul had said that monopolies have been taking shape in the formal sector. “There are various variants of coronavirus. Like Delta, Omicron. It is the AA variant that has spread in the entire Indian economy,” he said, referring to the businesses of Adani and Ambani across various sectors of the economy.

Without naming Rahul, Modi on Monday said, “Some people find pleasure in scaring and misleading youth of the country, wealth creators of the country and entrepreneurs of the country.”

He said the youths do not listen to them due to which the country is marching forward. Those who do not learn from history, get lost in the history, he said.

“The Congress is still stuck in files, we are working to change lives,” Modi said.

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During his 100-minute speech, Modi reminded how the Congress allies earlier used to call the then Nehru and Indira governments during 1960 to 1980 as “Tata-Birla ki Sarkar”. “You adopted their habits. You are also speaking the same language. I am seeing, you have gone too low. I feel that the punching bag has changed today but your habit remains the same,” the Prime Minister said.

He also hit out at Rahul for his remarks about ‘Make in India’. Those making fun of ‘Make in India’ have become a joke themselves, he said.

Speaking about the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat initiative, the Prime Minister said, “Being self-reliant in the defence sector is among the biggest national service.”

He said the number of start-ups have risen in the past seven years. There were just 500 start-ups before 2014, he said, adding that in the past seven years 60,000 start-ups emerged and India is now headed towards a century of unicorns.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the PM Gati Shakti initiative and said that his government’s emphasis is on “proper connectivity”.

Discussing the state of the economy, the Prime Minister said the world has taken note of India’s economic strides and that too in the middle of a global pandemic. Our total exports are at historical record level and agricultural exports have reached at the top, he said, adding that there is an increase in the mobile phone exports and defence exports. This is due to the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat initiative, he said.

The Prime Minister underlined that the only “effective way” of dealing with poverty is taking care of the concerns of the small farmers and monetization of farmers owning land below 2 hectares.

“Those people who are unaware of ground realities… who are in habit of living in palatial houses, they could never understand the plight of small farmers of the country… I want to ask them why do they have so much hatred towards small farmers,” Modi said.

Discussing issue of price rise under the previous governments, Modi said that in the past inflation was explained away by giving the excuse of global problems, whereas India, today, is tackling inflation despite difficult global scenario without making any excuses.

The Prime Minister also took a dig at Rahul’s claim regarding bringing out 27 crore people out of the poverty during the previous Congress-led UPA government. He said that in 2013 they made 17 crore poor people rich by changing the definition of poverty.