New Delhi: Taking a jibe at the Opposition parties’ meeting held in Patna in a bid to forge a united front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections next year, Union Minister Smriti Irani said wolves hunt in packs but they cannot hunt a lion. According to a report by news agency PTI, she also alleged that the target of the Opposition meet was not Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the country’s coffers.
“As soon as I came to Indore, the media asked me what my reaction was to the Opposition's gathering in Patna. There is a saying in English that wolves hunt in packs but they do not know that they can't hunt a lion,” Smriti Irani said addressing a public gathering to mark the completion of nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
"There has been a gathering (of Opposition parties), but its target was not Modi, but the public and India's treasury. I know that when a person casts an evil eye on treasury...just alert the woman of the house and the enemy automatically fails," the Women and Child Development minister said.
Taking potshots at the Opposition, She alleged that deep differences existed among the parties. "Those who can't handle even their own homes, how will they handle Hindustan?" she said.
Taking a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for touching the feet of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in Patna, Irani said, "Those of us who are in Parliament know that Mamata Banerjee had declared Lalu Yadav a corrupt leader.”
Launching an attack on former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, she said, "There was a great camaraderie between these parties in Patna. Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Today, I humbly want to ask the Gandhi family whether they are with India or Article 370?”
"The fractured opposition gathered in Patna indicated that Opposition parties are trying to unite for personal interests." Irani further said that the Aam Aadmi Party's stand in the opposition meeting has come to the fore and the opposition meeting started with "political blackmailing".