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Updated: Dec 16, 2018 21:47 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of neglecting the country’s defence sector and trying to create “distrust against judiciary”, launching a scathing attack on the opposition party at Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Rae Bareli on Sunday.

In his first public rally after the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the Centre on the Rafale fighter jet deal on Friday, Modi said the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was trying to boost the armed forces and equip them with modern weapons even as “the other party is trying to weaken it”.

At the event, which came five days after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) election losses in the heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, Modi also highlighted his government’s initiatives for farmers’ welfare and his commitment to increasing their income. He called for a door-to-door campaign to expose “Congress’s lies”, sounding the bugle for next year’s general elections on United Progressive Alliance chairperson Gandhi’s home turf.

“For these very people the defence ministry, the defence minister, officers of the Indian Air Force, the government of France, are all lies... now the Supreme Court also appears to be a lie to them,” Modi said in his 50-minute address, nearly 30 minutes of which were devoted to the Rafale deal.

“Is the Congress spreading lies because the BJP government’s defence deals don’t have any [Ottavio] Quattrocchi uncle or Christian Michel? Is it because of this that Congress is trying to create an atmosphere of lack of trust in the judiciary?” Modi asked, apparently referring to the opposition’s persistent demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Rafale deal even after the court’s ruling.

Michel, a 54-year-old British national extradited from Dubai earlier this month, is one of the alleged middlemen investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation over charges of organising bribes for Indian politicians and bureaucrats to push for the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal in the previous UPA regime, which cancelled the contract in 2014. Quattrocchi, who died in 2013, was one of the alleged middlemen in the controversial Bofors deal inked by the government led by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.

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“In 2009, the Indian Army had demanded 186,000 bullet-proof jackets. But, in the five years of UPA-II, these were not purchased...But, after we came to power, we purchased 50,000 BP jackets in 2016,” he said, adding that this year the order for purchasing 1.86 lakh jackets from a domestic company had been placed.

Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Devendra Pratap Singh said, “For a party that has made big sacrifices for the nation, these charges are preposterous.”

During his visit, Modi also announced the setting up of a rail industrial park, a medical college and a hospital for Rae Bareli, and dedicated to the people a crucial highway which would link Rae Bareli to Banda in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Modi stressed his plans for a rail coach manufacturing unit in Rae Bareli. “Over the next few years, the capacity of the plant will be raised to 3,000 rail coaches. I would still want the railway ministry to increase the manufacturing capacity to 5,000 coaches,” Modi said after launching the 900th rail coach manufactured in the factory in the last one year.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who accompanied Modi, said his government would pay special attention to Rae Bareli and Amethi, which is the Lok Sabha constituency of and Sonia Gandhi’s son Congress president, Rahul Gandhi.

“About 7,013 hamlets in 1,547 villages of Rae Bareli and 5,239 hamlets in 934 Amethi villages have been electrified and families given free power connection...Additionally, we have constructed 311,858 toilets in Rae Bareli and 214,974 toilets in Amethi. Very soon, all hamlets in Amethi and Rae Bareli will be electrified,” Adityanath said.

Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh said, “The people of Rae Bareli and Amethi have an emotional attachment with the Congress and won’t be misled by fake promises.”