Cong sees "rashtra bhakti" in "parivar bhakti": Modi

Jalna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the Congress of seeing nationalism in “devotion to a family”, and said the opposition party was taking its last breath.

Addressing a rally at Partur in Maharashtra’s Jalna district for the next week’s state Assembly polls, Modi said the Congress now is not the same party that fought for Independence.

“The (Congress) party is taking its last breath. It sees ‘rashtra bhakti’ (nationalism) in ‘parivar bhakti’ (devotion to a family),” he said without taking any names.

Hitting out at the opposition parties over objection to abrogation of constitutional provisions that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said, “I want to tell the Congress and NCP leaders, they can place a ‘chadar’ (cloth sheet) at the place where Article 370 has been buried.”

He said when young leaders in the Congress say the government’s decision of abrogating Article 370 is in the country’s interest, they are sidelined in the party.

Modi further said that Marathwada gave three chief ministers to the state, but still the region is backward in terms of development.

Referring to the NCP’s clock symbol showing time of 10 minutes past

10, he said the Sharad Pawar-led party and the Congress will win only 10 seats each in the October 21 Maharashtra polls.