New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday launched a scathing attack on Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi and said some opposition leaders are delivering speeches abroad as no one in the country wanted to listen to them.
Shah was addressing a meeting here when he asserted, "Some of these leaders go abroad and give speeches there. They are scared to speak in front of their own countrymen. Nobody in the country wants to listen to them."
In a broadside at the erstwhile UPA government led by the Congress at the Centre, Shah said the nation's people had to wait for months to listen to the then Prime Minister speak.
"All ministers in that government used to think of themselves as Prime Minister and the actual Prime Minister was not regarded as the Prime Minister by anybody," Shah said claiming that the nation has come a long way in terms of development under the present NDA government.
Shah's comments came hours after Rahul Gandhi's address to the students of University of California at Berkeley in the United States, where he criticised the present central government for its handling of the economy and over the growing polarisation in the country.
Addressing the students, Gandhi said that when Congress-led UPA was in power, he worked with former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior leaders like P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh to address the issues facing Jammu and Kashmir.
"By 2013, we basically broke the back of terror. I hugged the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and told him it was one of the biggest achievements," he added.
He further said the PDP had been instrumental in bringing youngsters in politics, but the day Prime Minister Modi made alliance with the PDP, he "destroyed" it. "So he (PM Modi) massively opened up the space for the? terrorists in Kashmir, and you saw the increase in violence," he added.
During the interaction, Gandhi further added that India is run by dynasties and cited the examples of Samajwadi Party, DMK and even Bollywood. "Most parties in India have that problem...Akhilesh Yadav is a dynast. Stalin (son of M Karunanidhi of DMK) is a dynast... Even Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast. So, that's how India runs. So, don't get after me because that's how India is run.
"By the way, last, I recall, Ambanis are running the business. That's also going on in Infosys. So, that's what happens in India," Gandhi said as he listed several prominent Indians born into famous families while responding to questions by students.
Earlier, senior BJP leader and Information Technology Minister Smriti Irani accused Gandhi of choosing a platform of convenience for beating his political opponents after "failing to connect with the people of India".
(With Agency inputs)
