Do surgical strikes on unemployment: Kapil Sibal

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader, Kapil Sibal came down hard on Prime Minister Narendra  Modi on Thursday for making constant references to Pakistan and the surgical strike on its terror camp and failing to focus on the real concerns of the country like unemployment, farmers' distress and corruption.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Sibal said nobody in the past had diminished the office of the PM like Mr Modi had in the last five years. “He speaks only about Pakistan and not India although he is the PM of India. Please talk about the problems of the Indian people. If you want to do a surgical strike, do it on unemployment and to irradiate poverty. Surgical strikes should be to empower our people. Corruption, unemployment and farm distress are the top three concerns of  the country. But the Modi government is ready to spend money on bullet trains and not the poor,” he said.

Taking a dig at Mr Modi for calling himself  a chowkidar, who was safeguarding the nation's interests, the Congress leader asked, “Why did the chowkidar allow a hundred kgs of explosives into Pulwama? Why did the chowkidar allow Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to get away? Is this the kind of chowkidar we want in this country?”

As for the PM's promise to eliminate corruption, he recalled that Rs. 1.8 crore cash was seized from the Chief Minister's convoy in Meghalaya on Wednesday. “Is this not corruption? Is the Operation Lotus of the Karnataka BJP not  corruption?” he demanded.

“In last five five years we have seen the country's economic prosperity decline, the collapse of the MSME sector and demonetisation affecting small and petty businessmen. The suicide of over 36,000 farmers and agricultural distress has left the country backward,” Mr. Sibal charged.