Narendra Modi has indirectly praised Congress' governance policies: Rashid Alvi

Congress today sought to counter Narendra Modi's pitch for development politics, saying the Gujarat Chief Minister has indirectly praised developments that took place due to the party's governance policies.

"From being dubbed a country of snake charmers to become a country of 'mouse charmers', the credit goes to the Congress party," Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi told reporters recalling that India is now ahead in the field of computer science because of the efforts of Rajiv Gandhi.

It was the dream of the late Prime Minister to take the country to the 21st century, he said. "It is what Rajiv Gandhi said...These are achievements of the Congress and its government," he said while steering clear of questions on projection of Modi by a section of the BJP as Prime Ministerial candidate.

Alvi said the extent of progress and development achieved by the country could be gauged from the fact that the first Budget of Independent India was merely Rs 197 crore while the figure for the last one was Rs14.5 lakh crore.

Earlier in the day, the Gujarat Chief Minister today used a college platform here to project himself nationally saying his focus was on development politics and not that of vote-bank, which he said has "ruined" the nation.