PM assailed for what he never said: M Venkaiah Naidu

Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “misquoted” and targeted for something “he never said,” Union minister for urban development M Venkaiah Naidu said on Thursday.
Naidu was referring to Modi’s reported comparison of Kerala with Somalia, which triggered a controversy and launched trolls that even grabbed international attention.
“Both the LDF and UDF are creating controversies to divert attention.The PM didn’t say it. Don’t misread the Prime Minister’s statement.
He was just explaining the situation in Kerala… He didn’t compare it. Kerala is God’s Own Country and he has been speaking about the same,” Naidu told newspersons at Nedumbassery near here on Thursday. Naidu said both the UDF and LDF leaders are now scared of Modi’s campaign. “The Somalia controversy … when V S Achuthanandan said the same in 2013, it never became a controversy.
Now, they are trying to attribute it to the PM, something which he never stated. They want to divert attention from real issues, to which they have no answer. They are shedding tears over Somalia, to cover up their failures,” Naidu said. He wanted to know why malnutrition deaths were still reported in Kerala, particularly in certain tribal areas like Attapadi.
“Isn’t it the responsibility of the state government? Also, a dalit woman has been brutally raped to death and why Rahul Gandhi has not visited Kerala yet,” he asked.
To a question on why PM didn’t bother to clear the air about the Somalia statement, when he addressed a gathering at Tripunithura on Wednesday, Naidu said: “Why should he apologise or clarify a matter he has never said? Both the LDF and UDF should apologise to the public for making a controversy out of nothing,” he said.
Naidu also defended Modi’s silence on the bar scam during the Tripunithura speech, where excise minister K Babu, is contesting as UDF candidate, saying that all other BJP leaders have been speaking about scams in Kerala.