Smriti Irani tears into Rahul Gandhi for his retort to PM Modi’s ‘SCAM’ jibe

Delhi: Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani tore into Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday for his retort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘SCAM’ jibe.
In a series of tweets, Irani wrote: “Today for the first time a Congress leader saw not one but four virtues in the word SCAM. ‘Seva’ seen in its true (congressi) avatar when Agusta Westland paid hefty bribes to one family and their loyalists. ‘Courage’ in congressi style when the Nation was looted by Congress for a decade without a trace of shame. ‘Ability’ demonstrated by Congress netas in the sheer number of scams in every sphere possible. ‘Modesty’ when a Congress neta termed a scam worth lakhs of crores as ‘zero loss’.”
The Union Minister’s response came after Rahul hit back at PM Modi over his ‘SCAM’ jibe today and alleged that one who is in the wrong, sees scam in everything while ally, while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the acronym stood for “save country from Amit Shah and Modi”.
Addressing a joint rally in Kanpur with Akhilesh, Rahul urged voters to ensure that the outcome of Bihar election is repeated, where BJP was trounced by a coalition led by Nitish Kumar.
“Whenever Modi is nervous, he starts giving labels PPE, ABC, DEF, GHY. Now this SCAM… A person, who is in the wrong, sees scam everywhere because this is his reality,” he said, adding that the Congress-Samajwadi alliance in the state had made PM Modi jittery, as per PTI.
“S infact stands for ‘service’, C for ‘courage’, A for ‘ability’ and M for ‘modesty’,” he said at the rally in government inter-collge ground here, giving his own coinage for the acronym.
On the other hand, Akhilesh, who reached an hour ahead of Rahul, also took on the PM for his yesterday’s SCAM taunt, where PM Modi had asked people of Uttar Pradesh to “rid the state of SCAM – S for Samajwadi (party), C for Congress, A for Akhilesh (Yadav) and M for Mayawati”.
The SP leader said, “SCAM means ‘save the country from Amit Shah and Modi’. But why has Modi included ‘bua’ Mayawati’s party as it was BJP which had thrice formed government with BSP and both of you have amiable ties.”
In his first rally in Uttar Pradesh after polls were announced, PM Modi had alleged that the corrupt he had “robbed” with note-ban had ganged up to bring him down and targeted the SP-Congress alliance, saying the two parties which abused each other till recently were now locked in an embrace to save themselves.
PM Modi had said that people of UP had to choose between development agenda of BJP and those who give shelter to criminals, indulge in vote bank politics and encourage land and mine mafias.
In his over-an-hour-long address, he had spoken at length about corruption, law and order and nepotism allegedly prevailing in the state as he sought people’s vote for BJP to change the state’s fate.