Claims of BJP, Modi on Gujarat "big lies": CPI(M)

New Delhi: Taking BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi head on, CPI(M) on Monday said their claims about riot-free Gujarat and development there were "big lies" based on "complete untruth".

Releasing booklets against communalism and one trashing the "so-called Gujarat development model" here, senior party leader Brinda Karat also claimed there was "no Modi wave" in the country and BJP was "desperate" to win the elections. "Their desperation shows in their actions. They are not only annoying and disappointing their own senior leaders but also giving tickets to those who have been chargesheeted in the Muzaffarnagar riots cases and attracting people like Amit Shah, who is accused in an encounter killing case, and the likes of Pramod Muthalik (whose outfit was accused of molesting women in Mangalore)," she said. Karat, who was accompanied by Gujarat CPI(M) leader Arun Mehta, said, "The so-called Gujarat model is based on cheap labour and its exploitation, very low expenditure on consumption, very high malnutrition, very high school dropout rates and very low expenditure on education and healthcare." Maintaining that the CPI(M) booklets had drawn conclusions from official figures like census and NSSO records, she said the per capita consumption expenditure in rural areas of Gujarat showed that 90 per cent people spent only Rs 75 per day on food and essentials. While the dropout rate was as high as 58 per cent, employment rate grew at 0.4 per cent, much less than the national average, she said. "Narendra Modi and P Chidambaram are equal in terms of jobless growth. The so-called Gujarat model is only for the corporates and not the people," she said.