Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 28 March, said that the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh is like saraab (alcohol) that will destroy the people.
He was addressing a rally in Meerut ahead of the general elections. The SP-BSP-RLD have formed a pre-poll alliance in the state to defeat the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
“‘Sa’ for SP, ‘Ra’ for RLD and ‘Ba’ for BSP together make ‘Saraab’. This saraab (alcohol) will destroy you,” he said.
‘Sarab and Sharab’: Opposition Slams Modi
While the Congress asked Modi to apologise for comparing the parties to liquor, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused him of spreading the "intoxication of hatred", saying he didn't know the difference between 'sharab' and 'sarab' (mirage).
Alleging that Modi had lowered political discourse, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "You should apologise to the country as you have insulted the poor by comparing opposition political parties to liquor. You should either take back your words or apologise."
Yadav added that those who spread the “intoxication of hatred” do not know the difference between “sharab and sarab”.
"Today the tele-prompter exposed that those who spread the intoxication of hatred do not know the difference between 'sharab' and 'sarab'” he said.
"Sarab means mirage, which is a blurred dream which the BJP is showing for the past five years but never fulfilled. It is once against showing 'sarab' to people during elections," Akhilesh said in a tweet
‘Previous Governments Did not Have a Will for Misssion Shakti ’
Attacking Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, Modi also said that they hadn’t written him a single letter for building roads in Meerut.
“I would have been happy if Behenji (Mayawati) had written to me about the need for construction of roads in Meerut, and Akhilesh Yadav would have written to me about housing for poor, but they never did so,” he said.
Talking about India’s ‘Mission Shakti’, Modi said that the previous governments never had the political will to do so.
“Our scientists were demanding for testing of shooting down of satellite in space, their government (UPA) postponed this decision as well. To make the India of 21st century strong and for its security, this decision should have been taken long ago. But it kept getting delayed,” he said.
Following Meerut, the prime minister is scheduled to address rallies in Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and Jammu on Thursday.
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