Unfortunate that questions were raised about India's democracy in UK: PM Modi

DEDICATES BENGALURU-MYSURU EXPRESSWAY, IIT DHARWAD IN K’TAKA | Says Cong busy digging my grave while I am striving to improve lives of poor

MANDYA/DHARWAD: In pollbound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday tore into the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, charging the opposition party and its allies with being “busy digging my grave,” and lashed out at the Wayanad MP for his comments on democracy in the country as an affront to its people.

In his sixth visit to the southern state this year, Modi seemed to have given a fresh momentum to the ruling BJP’s bid for a successive term, even as rival Congress has been mounting an aggressive attack over its saffron opponent on issues including corruption.

Assembly elections are due by May and Modi addressed two public meetings — in Mandya in the Vokkaliga heartland of Old Mysuru region and Dharwad in north Karnataka, where politically-influential Lingayat community holds the key to electoral fortunes.

In all, the Prime Minister dedicated and laid the foundation stones of projects worth around Rs 16,000 crore, including the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway.

The Rs 8,480 crore Expressway, which involved six laning of the Bengaluru-NidaghattaMysuru section of NH-275, will reduce the travel time between the two cities from around three hours to about 75 minutes, according to officials.

Targeting Gandhi, albeit in a veiled attack, Modi asserted no power in this world can harm India’s democratic traditions.

In an apparent referrence to Gandhi’s remarks made in London — that structures of Indian democracy are under “brutal attack”, he termed it an insult to 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara, the people of Karnataka, India’s great traditions and its citizens.