As Narendra Modi opens up,Congress and BJP ally close in for the kill

The first salvo was fired today by Union minister and Congress leader Manish Tewari,who said he was worried about Modi’s intentions. “…I often worry about the statements of the Gujarat Chief Minister. I hope he doesn’t want to do in the rest of India what he did in Gujarat in 2002,” he said in New Delhi.

AICC spokesman Rashid Alvi also appeared to compare Modi with “yamraj”,the Lord of death in Hindu mythology.

Hours later,senior NCP leader Tariq Anwar said it appeared Modi was not satisfied with presiding over the Gujarat riots and that he wanted to “re-enact the carnage” in the entire country.

UPA’s key outside ally Samajwadi Party too joined in the attack against the Gujarat CM,saying there was more publicity and less work done by him. “I don’t think that a single person can save the country. It’s good to dream but public will decide who they want to give the country’s leadership to,” SP leader Naresh Agarwal said.

NDA ally JD(U) too mocked at Modi’s statement,saying the country could be served even by serving Gujarat and that Modi had brazenly expressed his prime ministerial ambition. “The country can be served even by serving Gujarat. Nitish Kumar is serving Bihar. In a way,he is also serving the nation,” JD-U general secretary and party spokesman Shivanand Tewari said in Patna.

“Modi is already serving the nation as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. But when some politician says such things,it reflects the latent desire in his heart for the Delhi crown,” he added.

“He is aspiring for a chair (of prime minister),” Tiwari said,adding that otherwise there was no need for Modi to draw the distinction between service to the state and the country.

While virtually admitting his prime ministerial ambition yesterday,the Gujarat CM had said it was the duty of every child to repay the debt he owes to “Mother India”.

“Not only Modi,every child and citizen owes a debt to Mother India…it is his duty to repay the debt whenever an opportunity arises….Everybody has to repay this debt…I hope Mother India gives her blessings and nobody goes away without paying this debt,” he had said.

CM skips key BJP meeting on Karnataka

GUJARAT Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday skipped the first meeting of BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC),in which he was inducted last weekend to mark his ascendancy,that finalised 140 candidates for the May 5 Karnataka Assembly elections. Modi is also set to skip the launch of BJP’s poll campaign in the state with a mega rally on April 8.

Leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have decided to raise their hands to be counted in BJP’s last-ditch attempt to save Karnataka despite dark shadows over party prospects cast by intense factional rivalry during the last five years in the state. Swaraj and Jaitley are slated to join BJP president Rajnath Singh in launching the BJP’s poll campaign on April 8.

“The BJP has organised a Vijay Sankalp Sammelan on April 8 that will be addressed by Rajnath Singh,Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley,” BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar announced after releasing party’s first list of candidates.

“Narendra Modi will participate in campaigining in Karnataka,but Vijay Sankalp Sammelan will be addressed by Rajnath Singh,Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley,” Kumar said.

It’s now BJP’s turn to slam ‘communal’ talk

Congress is playing “negative communal politics” by attacking Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as it wants to divert the discourse from development,BJP said Friday.

“Congress and UPA government in desperation are reacting negatively to what Modi says. Deliberately,they want to communalise the issue and want to divert development discourse into a communal discourse,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

“As Congress cannot showcase their development,they are politicising and communalising issues. This is negative communal politics.”

Defending Modi,Javadekar said the Gujarat Chief Minister talks about development knowing very well that maintaining law and order is its primary pre-condition.

“Modi was speaking about development and country knows that after 2002 unfortunate riots,Gujarat for the last 11 years has not witnessed any riots because we believe that pre-condition to development is law and order and absence of communal tension. That is what Gujarat and all BJP-ruled states have achieved,” Javadekar said.