India's Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi yesterday said the central government had failed abysmally to match its words with deeds and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's electoral promises were nothing more than hawa baazi (hot air).

The Modi government has failed abysmally to match words with deeds, match media events with actual accomplishments and match headlines with substance," Gandhi said while addressing the party's working committee meeting.

The economy is on a downslide while prices continue to rise," she added. Gandhi also took a dig at the government's U-turn on the land bill.

The U-turn on the land bill is evidence that the Narendra Modi government is out of touch with the ground realities. It has become painfully clear that most of the pledges made by the prime minister during his election campaigns are nothing more than hawa baazi," the Congress president said.

Terming the NDA government's land

bill "draconian", Gandhi accused the Centre of disregarding the will of parliament.

The Modi government first promulgated a draconian land ordinance. For reasons best known to it, the government chose to disregard the will of parliament and displayed an inexplicable hurry to snatch land from our farmers," she said.

Gandhi also thanked party workers and farmers for putting up a strong opposition to the land bill.

Thanks to our party's sustained campaign, the government has been compelled to withdraw its anti-farmer amendments. The credit for this goes to every Congress worker who, under (party vice president) Rahul Gandhi's active guidance, carried out a sustained agitation," she said.