The Congress on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has nothing to offer but half-truths and communalism and described his speech as “stand-up comedy”.

Responding to the Prime Minister’s reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address in Parliament, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: “His speech in Lok Sabha oscillated between stand-up comedy, half-truth and rank communalism. It is regrettable that somebody at the level of Prime Minister quotes the first Prime Minister of India (Jawaharlal Nehru) out of context.”

Tewari said: “I am quoting from the first four lines of the Nehru-Liaquat agreement (signed in April 1950) — ‘The Governments of India and Pakistan solemnly agree that each shall ensure to the minorities through its territory, complete equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion…’ The Prime Minister must have been briefed but he deliberately chose to mislead the nation. He should apologise for selectively quoting from the agreement signed by two countries.”

Modi had cited the Nehru-Liaquat pact to defend the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), seizing on the word “minorities” in the agreement while leaving out the reference to “equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion”. The Prime Minister ignored the fact that the Opposition does not object to grant of citizenship to persecuted minorities, but is against the CAA only because it discriminates on the basis of religion.

Tewari asked Modi to introspect why the government passed a religion-neutral citizenship law in 1955. He also asked if the context of Partition can be compared with the situation prevailing in 2020.

“The clock of time has stopped in his mind,” Tewari said, strongly objecting to the constant comparison of India with Pakistan.

“Are we going to compare ourselves with a banana republic that is owned by the military? During the UPA rule between 2004 and 2014, we worked to de-hyphenate India and Pakistan. India is a great democracy; how can it be compared with Pakistan? Modi did not name any other country in his speech but named Pakistan seven times. Is he happy competing with Pakistan? Have we stooped that low?” the Congress leader asked.

The Prime Minister harps on Pakistan and communal issues to cover up the complete destruction of the economy, Tewari argued.

“The Indian economy is pulverized. GDP, consumption, investment, manufacturing is growing at the lowest rate of five years. Unemployment is at a 45-year high. The economy is afflicted with coronavirus but the government is treating it like common cold. The Prime Minister has no knowledge of the economy. He talked of surya namaskar; if that produces jobs, let him do it for 24 hours a day,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said: “The biggest challenge before the nation is jobs…. We have been asking the Prime Minister to explain how he is going to deal with this crisis…. Why can’t he give two minutes to the problem of youth when he is speaking for 90 minutes?”