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Journalism of Courage
The Congress on Saturday demanded that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi apologise to the elderly and to all women for terming the party a 125-year-old “budhiya” (aged woman) and saying it was a burden on the country.
“Modi should apologise to women,in fact men and women,and to the elderly for his remarks. If Modi or (his) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) do not apologise,the electorate will soon send them packing into obscurity,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters.
The Gujarat chief minister had,during campaign meetings in Uttar Pradesh on Friday,termed the Congress a “125-year-old budhiya (elderly woman)” and said it was a burden on the country.
Condemning Modi’s statements,the Congress spokesperson said even the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate LK Advani was in his 80s and elderly. She wanted to know if Modi considered Advani also as a burden.
She said Modi’s remarks not only “reflect his mindset” but also of the BJP for “he is the party’s poster boy”.
She claimed that in Gujarat,”58% of women in Ahmedabad felt insecure… because of horrendous physical abuse,including branding and kicking. This is Narendra Modi’s Gujarat,” she said,citing from a survey.
Natarajan said this was not the case only in Gujarat,but in all BJP-ruled states and cited the instance of Karnataka,where self-styled Hindu activists had attacked women in a pub in Mangalore.
She said the BJP had no issue left to speak of and had become “ideologically corrupt”. On the other hand,”the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) has made a decisive impact with his brilliant track record”.
