India is like a boat without a sailor: Modi

Surat: Taking another dig at the Prime Minister’s statement that money does not grow on trees, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said the PM had “tree of 2G spectrum, tree of coal scam”, and compared the country’s situation to that of “a boat without sailor”. “Public knows everything, Mr Prime Minister, you may or may not know, but people know you have tree of 2G spectrum, tree of coal scam!” Modi said here, addressing a campaign rally. [caption id=“attachment_466781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi.[/caption] “The PM doesn’t speak… or he cannot speak… or he doesn’t have anything to speak… Imagine, friends, the country is like a boat without sailor,” Modi said, targeting the Prime Minister for his silence at the time of power grid failure in July. “The country plunged into darkness one and a half months ago, leaving 70 crore population across 19 states struggling for power,” Modi said, adding that Gujarat was “the only state shining” during the crisis. Two days ago, Modi had said that for Congress, scams had become “money tree”. He also accused UPA government of making false promises of giving jobs to unemployed youth. “When Congress was contesting 2009 elections it promised one crore jobs. Did anyone get a job?” he asked. Talking about his sops for the youth, Modi said the upper age limit for the state government jobs had been relaxed. “The age limit, earlier 25 years, has been relaxed to 28, and where the age bar was 28 years it has been enhanced to 30 years.” The Chief Minister also announced today that leave encashment benefit limit for the teachers had been enhanced from 150 leaves to 300. PTI