When will he hear? Congress hits back at PM Modi, invokes FTII and Dadri lynching

New Delhi: Seeking to take the sting out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack, Congress has said “theatrics” in Parliament might be good entertainment for his supporters, but reminded him “it is his job to deliver”. In a scathing commentary where the Congress asks, ‘How much does he hear? When will he hear?’, an apparent retort to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Facebook post ‘How much does he know - when will he know’ targeting Rahul Gandhi, the opposition party alleged that Modi ignored the voices of farmers, Dalits, students and even his own ministers. “It is time to get real. Theatrics in Parliament may be good entertainment for his supporters. But pulses are still selling at more than double the price when he took office. It is his job to deliver, and ours to ask questions,” the AICC said. [caption id=“attachment_2640458” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PM Narendra Modi. AP[/caption] The party said as one evolves from chief minister to Prime Minister, “people certainly expect a certain level of maturity, a certain degree of willingness to listen and outgrow the love of one’s own voice.” “But after two years of unease, unrest and numerous confrontations, people have begun to wonder - “how much does he hear? - when will he hear?”” In the commentary posted on its website, Congress said that in May 2014, “India witnessed a phenomenon - a man castigated by the global community for his politics of hatred, was elected to lead the world’s largest Democracy.” It noted that there was tremendous hope attached with that victory - hope of a billion plus nation and its young impressionable minds who were enraptured by the billion dreams the man held out to them. The party, however, lamented, “He didn’t hear the impassioned pleas of students who were fighting RSS imposed mediocrity in FTII. He didn’t hear the wails of the family of Mohammed Akhlaq, who was dragged out of his home and lynched by a mob on the suspicion that he had stored beef.” It also accused Modi of “not hearing the agonizing pleas” of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula who was forced to end his life “because he had opposed the ABVP.” He responded to Rohith’s pleas five days after his tragic death, when Dalit students embarrassed the PM by raising slogans during his speech, it claimed. Besides, the party alleged that the Prime Minister didn’t hear Kanhaiya’s speech at JNU, but his government chose to listen to the “doctored” videos that were “circulated” by members/supporters of BJP. Targeting the Prime Minister on his Lahore stopover, it claimed Modi doesn’t even listen to his own ministers. “He himself decides when to stop talking to Pakistan and when to restart diplomacy by diverting plane. “His Ministers have to later scramble to find new words like ‘spontaneous diplomacy’ to describe his ill-advised moves hatched mid-air in his mind. The result - attack on our air installation in Pathankot and death of seven brave soldiers.” Posing the question whether the Prime Minister listened to India’s farmers and the ailing agriculture sector, it replied, “if he did, they wouldn’t be committing suicide.” “Does he listen to pleas for action against corrupt ministers - if he did, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel, Rajasthan CM Smt. Vasundhara Raje, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would have all been sacked by now,” it added. PTI