New Delhi: Lashing out at the Opposition alliance during his reply to the no-trust motion against the Centre in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that in cobbling together a grand alliance, the Opposition forces even splintered ‘INDIA’.
In a scathing attack on the Opposition alliance, which he termed a “Ghamandiya Gathbandhan” (alliance of arrogance), PM Modi said the parties in the Opposition alliance had to take support of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to keep themselves afloat in the national political space but, yet, couldn’t shed the arrogant tag ‘I’ from their name.
Taking a dig at the Opposition bloc, PM Modi said they inserted two “arrogant Is” in I.N.D.I.A (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) as well.
“Such is the way of these parties that they had to take the support of the NDA to keep themselves alive. But, out of habit, they couldn’t shake off the arrogance of ‘I’. This is why they inserted two 'I's of arrogance in I.N.D.I.A. The first 'I' is the arrogance of 26 parties that came together and the second 'I' is the arrogance of one family. They stole NDA too,” PM Modi said.
Mocking the Opposition bloc over the dots in their name, he said, “They also broke India - I.N.D.I.A.”
In a further dig at the Opposition bloc, PM Modi said while they brought a motion of no-confidence against the Centre, the people of the country have lost confidence in them.
Saying that the Opposition couldn’t see the writing on the wall, he added, “People have no confidence in the country. It is because of their arrogance that they cannot see the reality on the ground. They (Congress) last won in Tamil Nadu way back in 1962 and haven’t been voted back since. The people of Tamil Nadu are saying ‘No Congress’. They haven’t won in West Bengal since 1972 and the people there are still saying ‘No Congress’. They have been out of power in UP, Bihar and Gujarat since 1985. The people in these states are still saying ‘No Congress’.”