PM Modi in Shahdol. (Source: Twitter/BJP4India) PM Modi in Shahdol. (Source: Twitter/BJP4India)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday defended demonetisation and targeted the Congress for still criticising it two years later.

“Only the Congress and one family are still crying because what they had pilfered for four generations was lost in one go,” he said at a rally in Shahdol, insisting that common man had put it behind them.

“Even an old man who loses his son recovers in a year. Imagine how much they must have lost that they are still finding it difficult to recover after two years (of demonetisation),” Modi said. He added that demonetisation did cause inconvenience in the beginning, and apologised for it.

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Vowing to continue the fight against black money, he said demonetisation brought money stashed in beds, sacks and almirahs to banks.

He accused the Congress of dividing people along caste and creed whereas the BJP was given to politics of development. He said MP was once a laggard state (BIMARU) but now stands for Maximum Progress.

Accusing the Congress of misleading people with promises, he said FIRs were filed against defaulting farmers in Karnataka for not repaying loans even though the party claimed to have offered a total loan waiver.

Addressing a rally in Gwalior, the seat of the erstwhile royal family of Scindias, Modi invoked the legacy of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia. He dared former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to ask the Congress about the offence for which his grandmother was jailed for 19 months during Emergency. Without naming the Congress campaign committee chief, the PM said “If you have courage, ask your party why was she kept in jail and tortured. If she was innocent, why did the party commit the sin? This has been a tradition with the Congress. It cares for only one family.” The BJP is celebrating the birth centenary of Rajmata. The PM also remembered former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was born in Gwalior.

Modi said the Congress had always backstabbed coalition governments supported by it because it never bothered about the country’s losses. He also dared the party to name its CM candidate. “The Congress speaks in eight different languages and offers eight CM candidates in different places… How can a party that cannot decide its CM decide your future?” he said, naming Chhindwara (Kamal Nath) and Gwalior (Scindia).

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