Sonia's remark on Modi insult to the wisdom of Indian people, says Venkaiah Naidu

Mumbai: Slamming Congress president Sonia Gandhi for “insulting” the people of the country through her “false dreams” remark, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today said instead of passing such comments Congress leaders should introspect and work towards the revival of the party. “She (Sonia) had said that Modi government came to power by selling false dreams to Indians. This is an insult to the wisdom of the people of India. People chose a leader as they believe that he would deliver,” Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_1677745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Venkaiah Naidu. AFP[/caption] “The fact is that the Congress has not been able to digest its humiliating electoral defeat. Instead of introspecting and working towards the revival of their party, they are making such comments,” he added. Addressing a conference of Mahila Congress in Delhi on the occasion of the 70th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister and her husband Rajiv Gandhi yesterday, Sonia had said that the Congress-led alliance lost in the Lok Sabha polls as people got misled by the false dreams shown by Modi. “Such statements from the Congress chief only reflects the frustration and desperation in the Congress, which lacks grace to accept its defeat,” Naidu said. Replying to a query, Naidu termed as “unfortunate” the recent hooting against non-BJP Chief Ministers in the presence of the Prime Minister. “I agree that hooting against a CM is not right, whichever party he may belong to. Whatever happened was unfortunate. I urge the people to show their dissatisfaction through voting and not hooting. But it should not be used as an excuse to boycott PM’s events,” he said. After the chief minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren had been hooted at by people at a rally on Thursday. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was upset over having to stop his speech midway due to chants of “Modi! Modi” at a function in Solapur last Saturday when the PM inaugurated a National Highway project, yesterday boycotted PM’s function in Nagpur. Criticising Prithviraj Chavan over his remarks that the Centre was playing politics on the issue of the proposed Pune Metro Rail project, Naidu said that the Union Government has been very “sincere” in granting approvals. “There was no politics with regard to granting approval to Pune Metro project. There were certain deficiencies and variations on the part of the state government which was pointed out to them. The Centre has constantly been reminding the state to sort out the variations in its proposal. This only shows the sincerity of the central government in approving proposals,” he said. Naidu had yesterday said that the proposed Pune Metro project would be cleared within four days. Talking to the media on 18 August, Chavan had said that though the Centre had given its approval to the Nagpur Metro Rail project, it did not take any decision on the Pune Metro project. “I appeal to the Centre to approve the Pune Metro project immediately instead of playing politics on the issue,” he had said. Naidu said the Modi government wants to connect entire Mumbai through the Metro network to ensure de-congestion and to make it pollution-free. “His attention has also been drawn towards the encroachment of land in Mumbai belonging to defence, railway and port trust,” he added. “In my meeting with the Maharashtra CM today, I was informed about the work done by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority and MHADA and the problems faced by them. We will sit together and solve all of their problems,” Naidu said. PTI