Priyanka Gandhi targets Narendra Modi over 'Duryodhan-like arrogance' after PM's 'corrupt Rajiv' remark

Ambala: In a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said the Mahabharata character Duryodhana, too, had “such arrogance”. Addressing a public meeting in Ambala, she also criticised Modi for calling her late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi “bhrashtachari (corrupt) number 1”. She dared Modi to fight the Lok Sabha elections on issues like development rather than “divert” the people’s attention. “This country has never forgiven ego and arrogance. History is witness to this, the Mahabharata is witness to this,” she said at the meeting in support of Kumari Selja, the Congress candidate from Ambala. “Duryodhana also had such arrogance. When Lord Krishna went to make him understand, he tried to take him captive,” the Congress general-secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh said. [caption id=“attachment_6066941” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. PTI[/caption] She quoted lines from a poem by Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, saying wisdom is the first casualty before someone’s downfall: “Jab naash manush par chhata hai, pehle vivek mar jata hai…” She said if the prime minister has “courage” he should fight the Lok Sabha elections on issues related to development, employment, farmers and women. He should face the people and tell them what he has done for them over the past five years and what he plans to do in the future, she said. “You are the prime minister, a big leader of the BJP; you should understand this. Otherwise the people will teach you a lesson,” she said. “This election is about achievements of the BJP-led Central government. But to hide their failures, they try to divert the attention of people of country." Priyanka said the people of the country are wise. “You cannot mislead the people. The people of this country make every leader answerable and they will make you answerable as well,” she said. She attacked Modi for recently saying that Rajiv Gandhi’s life ended as ‘bhrashtachari number 1’. “When BJP leaders go out to campaign, they do not talk about issues. They do not say why they have not fulfilled the promises they made,” she said. “They raise other issues. Sometimes they say the elephant was sleeping for 70 years, sometimes they seek votes in the name of martyrs, and at other times they insult those from my family who sacrificed their lives,” she added. “But they do not talk about your needs, your problems that need to be resolved,” she said. “These polls are not about one family, this election is about crores of families whose hopes and aspirations have been completely broken by this government and the prime minister,” she said. Former Union minister Selja is taking on the sitting BJP MP RL Kataria in Ambala.