Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at Congress by calling it corrupt (hawalabaaz) while addressing a public gathering before inaugurating the three-day 10th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan (World Hindi Conference) in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal.
Taking a jibe at Congress President Sonia Gandhi's remark that Modi's poll promises were "nothing more than hawabaazi (empty talk)", the prime minister said, "The hawalabaaz are worried that the ground beneath their feet is slipping. They can sense the impending danger", Hindustan Times reported.
"Decisions were taken one after another in parliament. The 'hawalabaaz' were worried at the tough decisions by the government against black money. They could sense trouble ahead. That's why they are putting roadblocks on all major decisions," IANS quoted Modi as saying.
He criticised the Congress for "not cooperating with the government" in the Parliament to implement reforms in the country and said that the Congress has not been able to digest the defeat it faced in the 2014 general elections.
"We had hoped that the Congress will work with us, help parliament in enforcing (fiscal) reforms but 'ek hai jo manta nahi' (there is one who does not agree). The Congress has not been able to digest defeat (in Lok Sabha elections)," Modi noted.
"I appeal to those defeated and rejected by the people to please let the nation move ahead... Every political party must leave no stone unturned to meet public expectations if it won and also introspect in case of defeat.
"We faced defeat in 1984. We introspected and tried to learn from that defeat. But we didn't criticise others and corrected our mistakes instead. Today, the nation has given us a majority (in Lok Sabha).
"There was a time when the BJP had only two MPs in parliament. The then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi made fun of BJP in parliament and we had to listen to it... There was a time when the Congress had more than 400 seats in parliament, but now had been reduced to 40-odd seats."
The Conference has been organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and will be attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and over 50,000 people from across the nation and abroad.
The inauguration ceremony will be attended by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, minister of state for external affairs retired General VK Singh, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan.
