Massive gap between PM Modi's rhetoric & reality, says Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that there is a "massive gap" between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'impressive speeches' and the reality, as he might have given "excellent" ideas but could not provide "adequate" attention to them.

"There is a massive gap between Modi's rhetoric and reality. There is no point in having a doctor who gives an excellent diagnosis but cannot write a prescription or give adequate medication to cure it," Tharoor said at a programme in Jaipur on Monday. Targeting Pakistan, he said that problem lies within the neighbouring country and its solution can only come if civilian power increases and military power decreases.

"In India, state has an army, but in Pakistan, the army has a state. In India, one joins the army to defend the country, but one joins the army in Pakistan to run the country. "Army there (in Pakistan) runs the country. Everything is controlled by the military. As a result, the Pakistani military has the largest share of budgets," the former minister said.

"There is no army in the world that has a larger share of its own country's money," he said. Tharoor urged that trade and travel channels between the two counties should be generously opened.