Narendra Modi on Thursday slammed the Congress manifesto, calling it a "bundle of lies" and said the party has only repeated the promises it made in 2004 and 2009 but did not fulfil. "Congress announced its manifesto yesterday which is a bundle of lies. They had announced the same promises in their 2004 and 2009 manifestoes," he told a public meeting held here in support of BJP candidate for Lohardaga (ST) Lok Sabha seat, Sudarshan Bhagat. "For any political party, a manifesto is equal to the Gita, the Bible, the Koran and should not be a document to hoodwink the people," the BJP prime ministerial candidate said and accused Congress of not fulfilling its past promises like controlling price rise or ensuring a job to a member of each family. Turning to the crowd, Modi said, "You (people) ask them (Congress) how many points (of the manifesto) they had implemented in the last five years? When did they implement them? And what was the output? "If you ask these questions you can stop the tradition of announcing untrue manifestoes of political parties," he added. The coming Lok Sabha election, he said, has turned into a storm which would "sweep away looters and destroyers of the country". Congress leaders were involved in corruption in mining of coal and iron ore affecting the prosperity of the people, he alleged. He also hit out at the UPA government over alleged corruption in giving clearances for power projects and revived his "Jayanthi tax" barb to target former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan. Modi claimed that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had "mocked" at the demand for creation of separate state of Jharkhand. "Like sales tax and income tax there was ‘Jayanti tax’ in the environment ministry in Delhi to clear files. The files would not be cleared if the under-the-table tax was not given. "I can assure you that corruption can be curbed. But a leader should have guts, a clean conscience and a clear policy," Modi said. The Gujarat mineral policy was approved by the Centre and other states were asked by it to follow it as a model, he said. On Jharkhand, he claimed it would never have come into existence but for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as Congress did not have the inclination to create a separate tribal state. "But when the state was formed they (Congress) lined up behind one party or the other, created instability and brought governor (rule) to rule from behind," Modi alleged. "The Congress ruled for so many years since independence but forgot the interests of the tribals. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee government which created a ministry for tribal affairs, formulated policies for tribals and earmarked budget for their development. Tribal welfare can be done only by the BJP," he claimed. He cited schemes for tribal development adopted by BJP governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Gujarat and appealed to the people to vote for the party for development. Referring to his 'Bharat Vijay Rally' which was launched yesterday, Modi said the campaign is aimed at defeating price rise, corruption and misgovernance, providing jobs to the unemployed and security to the women and helping farmers to prosper.
