New Delhi: Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur today said it is not the Prime Minister but the Congress vice-president who is caught up in the habit of photo-ops and has been "surrounded by black money" all his life.
She accused the Congress of spreading corruption like cancer in every part of the country and said that it was unable to digest the fact that a "strong leader" has taken decisive action against the menace.
Her remarks come on a day when Gandhi launched an all-out attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of practising TRP politics, and said the country has suffered damage due to his "vanity and incompetence".
Addressing MPs at the Congress Parliamentary Party, Gandhi described the Prime Minister as being "a prisoner of his own image" and one who is inflicting "tremendous suffering" on the people of India to protect his own persona.
Dismissing Gandhi's charges, Kaur said, "His party has been in government for 60 years. For the last ten years, he himself was in power. But in all these time, beside spreading corruption like cancer into every corner of our society, besides looting the nation, 2G to CWG to Bofors, this Congress party and the Gandhi family has nothing to their credit."
"Now when a government has come which is trying to root out black money and corruption, obviously Rahul Gandhi is not being able to understand because they never had this desire to understand," she told reporters outside Parliament.
Referring to Gandhi's "photo-ops" of visiting Dalit woman Kalavati's household to standing in queue of a bank to withdraw Rs 4,000, Kaur said, "All your life you (Rahul) have only seen black money."
"For the first time, you stood in a line and saw Rs 4,000 of white money, so starting from his political career of going to Kalavati's house for photo op or catching a train in the third class and going to a 'mandi', I think he is caught up in his own image and unfortunately his image is to make sensational headlines and click sensational photos to come in the media," she said.
She alleged that Gandhi was the only person who does not understand the difference between an economy and a black economy.
Kaur said that Gandhi "should name one step which his own government took in ten years to get rid of this black economy".
"They are not being able to digest the fact that there is a strong leader who has taken a decisive and tough decision. The country despite the hardships is standing with this leader," she said.
Kaur, who belongs to NDA constituent SAD, said that the Congress has nothing to debate in Parliament which is why, the party is not letting any discussion to take place.
"If today they (Congress) think PM has done something which is not in the benefit of the common people, I think he is duty bound to raise these issues in Parliament and put the government on the mat and ask for answers.”
"But they are not going to do that. They are trying desperately to cobble together these rejected parties and make an issue. But the people of the country are standing with the PM against this fight of corruption and black money," the Bathinda MP said.
