Modi government very good at publicity campaign, breaking news opportunities: Shashi Tharoor

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that the BJP-led government at the Centre has been very good at photo-op, sound bite, publicity campaign, party logo and breaking news opportunities, adding that one actually needs progress on the ground.

Tharoor said that there is a tremendous gap between the rhetoric and results, between the intention and the implementation in the last 11 months of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

"What we have seen with the Budget, for example, are all these big schemes and abhiyans and missions that have been announced come without any funding source, without an adequate budget, without an implementation capacity, without an execution plan. Now, the result of all of this is that, we can talk as much as we like about Incredible India, but what we will not have is a credible India," said Tharoor.

"This government has been very good at the photo-op, sound bite, publicity campaign, the party logo, and the breaking news opportunities and so on. But, when people start realising both here and abroad, that there is no substance to it, that there are no actual results on the ground, it will no longer be possible to sell these stories credibly. You actually need progress on the ground.

So, you know, I think it's time for some ghar wapasi on the part of the government, starting with Modi himself. To get down to earth and to actually look at what the problems are in India on the ground and find solutions to them, rather than being a travelling salesman for a vision that is largely underfunded," he added. Tharoor also justified Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's 'anti-poor' rant against the government.

"This has been the Congress' worry that it seems like this government has a set of blinkers on that does not allow them to see the vast majority of the people in this country. That there is a certain special interest group that they are attached to, there are certain corporate beneficiaries of their policies," said Tharoor.

"But, that the farmers, for example, the landless and the poor, the people who are living in the slums, the unemployed youth, the people who frankly need an effective government are not getting the attention of the government. And, this is something that definitely worries us and we will keep reminding the nation as well as the government about their duties to these people. After all, the rich can by and large take care of themselves, it is the poor who need an effective government that cares for their interests," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier today said NDA government is pro-poor and pro-farmers and accused the opposition of projecting the Centre as anti-poor on the issue of Land Acquisition bill.

Addressing the BJP MPs workshop in New Delhi, he said common man is in the center of every step taken by his government and lies are being spread on Land Bill by those whom he described as perverted minds. Prime Minister Modi refuted the allegation that the Centre is working for corporates, and wondered whether providing facilities of housing to all, toilets, hospitals, education and other basic things are against the poor.

The Prime Minister's comment came after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the government of being anti-farmer and said farmers and workers in the country are worried as they feel that the government has forgotten them. He alleged the government wants to snatch farmer's land for industrialists from whom Prime Minister Modi had taken loans for his election campaign.