Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of arrogance over his remark that he will return next Independence Day to address the nation from the Red Fort.
Gehlot also said people will make 'Mission 156' of the Congress successful in the Rajasthan assembly election due later this year. 'Mission 156' refers to the party's target of winning 156 of the total 200 assembly seats in the state.
The chief minister was speaking to reporters at the Congress headquarters here after paying tribute to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary.
"We do not have the ego and arrogance like them (PM Modi) to say that next time I will again come to Red Fort on August 15. I cannot say this. He can only say this. Neither do we have ego nor arrogance. We are doing our work," he said.
On the renaming of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library as the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society, Gehlot said PM Modi is doing it either under pressure from the RSS or the BJP to wipe out the names of those who created history for this country.
He alleged the ruling party at the Centre wants to forget those who sacrificed their lives and remained in jails before Independence. "Now, they have changed the name of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library," Gehlot said.
To a question on how he was moving towards his party's 'Mission 156', Gehlot said, "I can claim that people have made up their mind towards the mission and are moving towards it. People are supreme..." He said Prime Minister Modi has visited Rajasthan six times in the last few months but "this is not going to help". "Whether you come to Rajasthan 15-20 times or do up-down, people have made up their mind to repeat the government," the chief minister said.
He alleged that there is an environment of fear among traders and industrialists that they are afraid to speak out. "They have to donate money out of fear and these electoral bonds are a big scandal in the country," Gehlot claimed.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
