Modi has no answers on graft'

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of lying and not having answers on issues of alleged corruption by his ministers, diamond merchant Nirav Modi, and Rafale.

The party was hitting back at Modi after he lashed out at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, asking him to speak on the achievements of his Karnataka government for 15 minutes.

Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev said Mr Modi’s remarks on Tuesday proved that he had no answers to the issues raised by her party and demanded that he speak with integrity for even 15 seconds without lying or misrepresenting facts. “Today, it has been proved beyond doubt that the Prime Minister has no answer on Nirav Modi, or on Jay Shah. He has no answers on Rafale or on Piyush Goyal’s corruption which is there beyond doubt in the public domain,” she told reporters. The Mahila Congress chief said she wanted to tell him that their fight was not against individual Narendra Modi but Mr Gandhi’s challenge to speak for 15 minutes must address the issues related to Nirav Modi and Rafale.

“It must address Jay Shah and Piyush Goyal. But today his statement in Karnataka has proved beyond doubt that he has absolutely no answer whatsoever to these issues,” she claimed.

On the Prime Minister’s remark that Mr Gandhi should speak without a script, Dev said, “Do you have the integrity to speak, let alone 15 minutes, can you speak for even 15 seconds without lies and misrepresentation?”

On the issue of “kaamdaar” and “naamdaar” that Modi had referred to, Ms Dev said, “The people of the country are not thinking about who is ‘kaamdaar’ or ‘naamdaar’. Today, the only word that exists in the people’s heart is ‘imaandaar’ (honest)...”