india

Updated: Apr 09, 2015 20:32 IST

The Congress on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for maintaining silence on critical issues of communalism, price rise and bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks.

Reacting to Modi's exclusive interview to Hindustan Times, Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan dared him to prove that the poor had become poorer during the UPA regime.

"Modiji is PM now and he should not mislead the country. We dare him to provide evidence to substantiate his claim that poor became poorer under the Congress regime. In fact, it was the Congress that lifted 14 crore people out of poverty," he said.

Vadakkan attacked Modi for not speaking on issues such as 'ghar wapsi', rising incidents of violence against minorities and vandalism of religious property. "We hoped the PM will speak on the critical concern of rising communalism. His ministers and MPs have contributed to the fear psychosis among the minorities. He hasn't said a word about it."

The Congress alleged that the PM had "fiercely curtailed the authority of his cabinet colleagues and concentrated all powers" in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "We saw how the appointment committee is rendered dead and the PM becomes the sole authority," Vadakkan claimed.

The party once again charged the BJP-led NDA government with re-packaging and re-naming the social welfare schemes initiated by the UPA. "He talked of pace in governance. We see a remarkable pace in undoing good things done by the previous governments such as MNREGA, food security and land acquisition acts," Vadakkan said.

On the foreign policy, the Congress reiterated its charge that the Modi government has done flip-flops on Pakistan and accused it of ignoring Russia, Middle East and the African sub-continent. "The flip-flop on Pakistan is truly worrisome. There is no forward movement at all. In fact, the decision to discontinue talks with Pakistan on the Hurriyat issue was childish," Vadakkan said.