‘Have achche din come for you?’: Shashi Tharoor attacks Modi govt

Shashi Tharoor seems to be in no mood to spare the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime at the Centre over its "multiple failures".

New Delhi, July 30: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor seems to be in no mood to spare the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime at the Centre over its "multiple failures".

According to the Lok Sabha member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram, the Narendra Modi government's slogans are "empty" rhetoric and it has no achievements to show during its more than four years rule.

The Congress is raising real issues such as farmers plight, while the BJP is "seizing" on anything to promote its "polarisation agenda" as it has no achievements to show, Tharoor said on Sunday. He asserted that the BJP's "achche din" (good days) promise remains unfulfilled.

Claiming that the government has "failed" on the foreign policy front, Tharoor said the Congress would highlight these "failures" as also the so called schemes that have remained "empty slogans" with no effect on the ground.

"The simple question to the voters is: Are you better off than you were in 2014? Have achche din come for you? Most will say no," he asserted. Achche din was a popular slogan coined by the BJP in the run up to the 2014 general elections that reverberated throughout India as the Modi-led BJP government came to power with a thumping mandate.

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram also said Congress president Rahul Gandhi's speech during the no-confidence debate in Parliament earlier this month clearly showed that the party was setting the agenda, raising issues such as the "Rafale scam" and the plight of farmers.

Asked what had brought about the change in Rahul's image from a "reluctant politician" to a "real challenger", he said it was the Congress chief's own efforts.

"Rahul Gandhi has been especially sharp and incisive in his statements, while at the same time attentive and involved with the concerns of the country. His enthusiasm on social media, his wit, energy and sense of humour are all on display," the former Union minister said.

"This is a man whose engagement on social media platforms speaks to a wider engagement with politics. There is neither reluctance nor frivolity on display here, only commitment and passion to make a better India," he said.

Tharoor said he does not regret his comments--"Hindu Pakistan" and "Taliban in Hinduism"--that have created a huge deal of controversy.

"I did not say India is a Hindu Pakistan. I said if the BJP wins again and has the strength in both Houses of Parliament and the states, there will be nothing restraining them from fulfilling their project of creating a Hindu Rashtra, which would be a mirror image of Pakistan (since it too would be state for a religious majority) and so reduce us to a Hindu Pakistan," he clarified.