We are aim-changers, not name-changers: PM Modi's comeback to Congress jibe

PM Modi's response in the Rajya Sabha came to a jibe from senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

PM Modi speaking in Rajya Sabha. (Picture: ANI/screengrab from RSTV)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday responded to the Congress's dismissal of his government as a 'name-changer' and not a 'game-changer'. He said he had his government do not look at themselves with either of those terms, and instead think of themselves as 'aim changer'.

PM Modi's return salvo came in the Rajya Sabha, as part of the motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind to a joint sitting of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget Session. 

"You said we are 'name-changers' and not 'game-changers'. But if you notice our mode of operation and working pattern, you will realise we are 'aim-changers'. We plan our action, set the road map so that we take the nation on the path to development," he said, to applause from the treasury benches.

He also continued the attack on the Congress that he launched while delivering a speech on the same motion in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day. "After Independence, Gandhi said Congress's task is done and that it should be disbanded. The idea of a 'Congress-mukt Bharat' is not my idea, it is Gandhi's," said PM Modi.

He also asked the Congress why it could not be happy for the country because it has climbed in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi had launched a fierce attack on the Congress while speaking on the same motion in the Lok Sabha. He had said the Congress does not have the moral right to talk about democracy. He accused it of muzzling India's democracy and laid blame at its door for the Partition of India.

"Had the Congress governments in the past worked responsibly, they would have taken the country to new heights. Had they kept the right directions with right intentions, this country would have been in a much better position at present," said PM Modi.