Congress releases 'Black Paper' to counter BJP's 'White Paper', Modi responds with 'kaala teeka' jibe

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on February 8 unveiled a Black Paper highlighting the BJP government's failures in a bid to counter the White Paper being brought by the Centre in Parliament's Budget session to list its achievements. At

At a press conference, the Congress chief claimed that the Modi government failed to tackle issues like unemployment, price rise, and farmers’ distress.

"We are raising the main issue of unemployment, which the BJP never talks about. Prime Minister Narendra Modi never mentions the number of jobs created by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) set up by former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Whenever PM Modi speaks in Parliament, he always tries to hide his government’s failures."

He added, “The saffron party should talk about the present as they are in power now, but they are busy talking about the past and bringing up Pandit Nehru.”

He also claimed that the non-BJP government states were being neglected by the Centre with regard to allocating funds.

“When PM Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he also used to complain about funds,” he said.

Modi then hit back in the parliament saying, "The nation in the last 10 years has been achieving every level of prosperity. There is a positive environment in the country. Kharge felt that he needed to apply a black spot (kaala teeka) so that no one cast an evil eye. I applaud Kharge ji for that."

“There is a danger to democracy in the country. In the last 10 years, 411 MLAs were taken on their side by the BJP. They toppled so many Congress governments. They are finishing democracy,” he said.