JANUARY 1948 TO JANUARY 2018: TWO ROLE MODELS

‘You cannot have a blot on you simply by standing with anyone if your intentions are good and clear. Gandhiji’s intentions were so pure that he never hesitated in staying with the Birla family. Public mey milna nahi, parde ke peeche sab kuch karna hai. Woh dartey rahtey hain (Those who do not meet publicly and do everything behind curtains remain scared)’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lucknow on Sunday

Lucknow: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cast himself as a modern-day Mahatma Gandhi whose good intentions made him unafraid of rubbing shoulders with industrialists in public, suggesting that Rahul Gandhi's relentless attacks on the Rafale deal involving an Anil Ambani firm have touched a raw nerve.

"You cannot have a blot on you simply by standing with anyone if your intentions are good and clear. Gandhiji's intentions were so pure that he never hesitated in staying with the Birla family," Modi said in Lucknow.

"Public mey milna nahi, parde ke peeche sab kuch karna hai. Woh dartey rahtey hain (Those who do not meet publicly and do everything behind curtains remain scared)," he added.

Modi, who has been portraying himself as the messiah of the poor and the scourge of the unscrupulous among the rich whom he had sought to teach a lesson through demonetisation, has now projected himself as the defender of the much-maligned business fraternity.

"Should we insult them by calling them ' chor' and 'luterey'? What is this? Those who will do wrong will have to leave the country or spend life in jail. This was not done earlier because everything was done behind curtains.... Kiskey jahaj me log ghoomtey pata nahi kya (Don't you know on whose aircraft they used to travel)?" Modi asked but did not name anyone.

The venue and attendance may also have prompted the Prime Minister to speak up in favour of industrialists. He was speaking after launching investment projects valued at Rs 60,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh.

Among the audience were 200 industrialists, including Gautam Adani and Kumar Mangalam Birla. Modi drew loud applause and considerable mirth by listing the hurdles that haunt industrial projects in the country.

"A delay of two years is inevitable if the project papers reach the court. The people in the environment department sit on the projects. And the government starts rethinking - 'to give or not to give the work to someone' - if an akhbaarwala (journalist) lays his hands on the project," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister's statements came amid repeated attacks by the Congress, spearheaded by Rahul, on the Rafale deal. The Congress has been firing off questions almost daily. The government has flatly denied the charges but, citing a confidentiality clause with France, has not provided the information the Congress has been seeking.

On Sunday, the Congress hit back at Modi by drawing a distinction between capitalists and "crony capitalists".

Spokesperson Manish Tewari later said: "The Congress is not against industrialists, it is not against capitalists. It feels that private enterprise and private capital has a legitimate place in the developmental trajectory of the country but what we are against is crony capitalists, what we are against is crony capitalism."

The Congress said it was unfortunate that the Prime Minister had compared himself to Mahatma Gandhi and likened the industrialists who had backed the freedom struggle with Modi's friends in industry.

Additional reporting by our Delhi bureau