Fear of poll defeat is keeping Modi away from debate with Rahul: TNCC prez Selvaperunthagai

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K Selvaperunthagai on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not come forward to debate with Rahul Gandhi fearing imminent poll defeat.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's acceptance of the public debate invitation offered by two former Supreme Court judges, Selvaperunthagai said, "No reply has been received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi so far. It has confirmed that Modi lacks the courage to engage in such a debate. Modi is not ready to debate with Rahul Gandhi because of the liabilities he has. The victory of the INDIA bloc has become certain. Hence, Prime Minister Modi is not coming forward to participate in the debate with Rahul Gandhi."

Claiming that Modi has not subjected himself any form of thoughtful debate during his ten-year tenure as the PM and eleven-year tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister, the TNCC chief said that the PM has neither replied to any query in the Parliament nor engaged with the media even once in his decade-long reign as the PM of the country because he lacked the courage to reply to the queries of media persons.

Attributing his aversion to press conferences to his political background, the TNCC chief said that it was farcical that the PM was repeatedly calling Rahul a 'Prince' despite knowing that he was the grandson of Indira Gandhi who abolished monarchy in the country.

Wondering what right union home minister Amit Shah, who was arrested by the Supreme Court constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the Gujarat riots, to question Rahul Gandhi, Selvaperunthagai said that informed political pundits and impartial Psephology experts were predicting that there was no change of Modi returning to power due to historically unprecedented unemployment, denial of MSP to farmers, impact of demonetization, five lakh Covid deaths and livelihood loss suffered by the poor masses among other issues.

Alarmed by the predictions, Modi and his party was dreaming of winning by dividing the people communally.