Rahul Gandhi has said only Congress can bring bullet train to India. (agencies)

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious bullet train in India project will never be completed under the BJP rule. According to Gandhi, if at all a government can finish the project, it would be led by the Congress. “It should not be called a bullet train. It should be referred to as a magic train. It will never be constructed, if at all it is ever made it is going to be in Congress regime,” news agency ANI quoted the Congress president as saying today..

Interestingly, Gandhi’s remark that Congress can complete the project negates his own declared view that bullet trains are not necessary for India. The Congress president and several other leaders of his party have dubbed Modi’s ambitious project as anti-poor and opposed it right from the day the prime minister made an announcement in this regard.

During the Gujarat Assembly election campaign last year, Gandhi had told a gathering of industrialists in Vapi that the bullet train was a symbol of Japan and not of India.

Bullet train is not for ordinary people. It is an ego trip for the high & mighty. — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 30, 2017

Talking about the feasibility of the bullet train project, Gandhi had said, “The freight corridor would have benefited more than a bullet train…I am saying that bullet train cannot be the strength of India, because it is made in Japan. It is not made in India. If we bring the bullet train here, then it will not be India’s strength; it will be the strength of Japan,” The Indian Express quoted Gandhi as saying.

In July 2016, Gandhi had attacked Modi for promising bullet trains. Gandhi said tickets of bullet train will not be less than Rs 15,000. “Only Modi ji and his suit-boot friends will travel in it,” Gandhi had told Congress workers in Lucknow.

Recently in May this year, the Congress president had attacked Modi for not talking about rape incidents but bullet trains.

Bullet train will be like demonetisation. It will kill everything else including safety. — P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 30, 2017

Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said in past that bullet train in India will be “an ego trip for the high and mighty.”

“Bullet train is not for ordinary people. It is an ego trip for the high and mighty. Bullet train will be like demonetisation. It will kill everything else including safety. Railway Minister may take pledge on day after. Rs One lakh crore for rail safety, track upgrading, signalling & not for bullet train,” Chidambaram had said in a series of tweets on September 30, 2017.