The Bharatiya Janata Party's heavy artillery roared in this district headquarters on Friday as the saffron party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi placed Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the party's deputy, Rahul Gandhi, in the cross hairs by alleging that it is not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government but actually a ma beta ka sarkar (mother and son's regime) that rules from New Delhi.
"India never had a government that is so corrupt and conceited as the one in power for the past ten years. The country was looted. Graft is in the blood of the Congress that is clever and changes colour whenever it gets an opportunity," the Gujarat Chief Minister said while addressing a poll rally.
Pouring sarcasm on the Congress' symbol, Modi quipped that the party's members first fold hands, then shake hands, show hands, play a hand and finally do sleight of hand.
"During Rajiv Gandhi's premiership, only the Congress was visible from the panchayat to Parliament levels. However, Gandhi himself admitted that for every rupee disbursed from New Delhi only 12 paise reach beneficiaries. Which hand took the moneyIJ" he asked.
In an endeavour to attract tribal folk, Modi said the adivasis had participated in the Revolt of 1857 and the struggle for independence but the Congress does not comprehend those facts.
"Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first prime minister to create a Tribal Affairs Ministry and earmark a separate budget for adivasi welfare. The then Premier monitored the Ministry," he claimed.
In such an immense country, would a soft regime be okay, Modi asked, adding that a careless 'daroga' (police inspector) is worthless and a car with a deflated tyre would not move properly.
"The nation cannot wait much longer. Choose this 'sewak' (servant) once. You gave them 60 years, give me 60 months. I will make the country emerge. All 'lotuses' from Madhya Pradesh should reach Delhi," he appealed.
If a vehicle is stuck in some mud, the driver manages to pull it out, if the mud is deeper than a few persons can pull it out … in today's crisis, he requires more than 300 parliamentarians to rescue the nation, Modi said.
"Had Shivraj Singh Chouhan not been chosen as the Chief Minister and the BJP government not formed then would not this state have continued to be in ruinIJ That was the condition it was placed in by earlier regimes. The BJP brought Madhya Pradesh out of the 'BIMARU' (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) category. Development is our objective," he claimed.