Rahul an international leader,can contest in Italy too,says CM

India as well as Italy,whereas I am dedicated only to Gujarat.”

He went on to accuse the UPA government of cheating people and practising vote bank politics.

Modi said that the Congress had promised to provide one crore jobs and reduce poverty,but these promises have fallen flat. In comparison,he added,his government had created 3.5 lakh government jobs in the past 10 years,and this is more than half the total strength of government employees of six lakh.

On the issue of employment,he said that the Prime Minister’s decision to bring in FDI in retail will increase unemployment,as local manufacturers will be unable to compete with Chinese items priced much lower.

“In China labour is free. We cannot do similar things here. This will throw local manufactures out of business,” he said.

Sidhu mocks PM

Punjab MP and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu,who attended the function,took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by equating him with one of Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys,which remains silent.

“Gandhiji asked ‘where is the third monkey?’ And the answer is,‘that one has become prime minister’,” Sidhu told the gathering.