New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS): The Congress on Saturday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi's releasing of the eight cheetahs into the wild at a Madhya Pradesh national park as "tamasha" (drama), adding that it was a diversion from pressing issues.
In a series of tweets, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said: "PM hardly ever acknowledges continuity in governance. Cheetah project going back to my visit to Capetown on 25.04.2010 is the latest example. The tamasha orchestrated by PM today is unwarranted and is yet another diversion from pressing national issues and Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"When tigers were first translocated to Panna and Sariska during 2009-11, there were many prophets of doom. They were proved wrong. Similar predictions are being made on the Cheetah project. The professionals involved are first-rate and I wish the project the very best!"
Earlier in the day on the occasion of his 72nd birthday, the Prime Minister released the cheetahs flown in from Namibia into a special enclosure in the Kuno National Park, as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India seven decades after it was declared extinct in the country.
The big cats arrived in Gwalior on board a special plane on Saturday morning as part of the cheetah reintroduction programme.