Congress asks 'no make-in-India cars for PM?' as SPG adds new car to PM's security fleet

Slamming the union government over purchasing an expensive luxury car for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress has criticised its decision saying that the purchase has been done at the time when the country's economy is facing a major hit in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Referring to PM Modi's remarks of calling himself a 'fakir', Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said, "Every person in the country desires to be a fakir like Modi who flies in an Rs 8,000 crore aircraft, rides in Rs 20 crore car and spends Rs 2,000 crore on building a home."

Further alleging that the Prime Minister has changed five cars in 7 years, he said that a lot of people have lost their jobs, faced salary deductions, suffered from failing businesses, among other challenges during the pandemic. However, there is no change in the Prime Minister's speed of changing cars. 

Also taking a dig at PM Modi's 'Make In India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' slogans, the Congress leader said that the Prime Minister has not travelled in a Make In India made car since 2014. "Vocal for Local, Aatmanirbhar Bharat have remained mere slogans… there is no India-made car. It started with Scorpio, but the Prime Minister has never turned to an Indian car after that,” he added.

New car added to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security fleet

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got a new set of wheels costing more than Rs 12 crore. With the addition of the Mercedes-Maybach S650 Guard, several speculations were also raised regarding the price and other details of a new addition to the PM's convoy by the Special Protection Group. However, clarifying such speculations, government officials have said that the new car is merely a replacement of the previous BMW used by the Prime Minister as the company has stopped the production of that car. 

Adding to it, it has been said that the SPG security detail has a 6-year rule to replace the car used for the protectee and the PM himself has not given any preference on which car to use. Speaking on the price of the new addition, officials said that it costs around one-third of the price mentioned in the media. 

Image: Doordarshan/PTI