Raking up Amethi’s backwardness and pitching for its development with a change, BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi on Monday launched an aggressive attack on the entire Gandhi family in their bastion. He also addressed rallies in Faizabad — where he invoked lord Ram to exhort the masses for setting up a Ram Rajya — and Ambedkar Nagar, where he promised to introduce a new system for fixing the minimum support price (MSP) for all agricultural produce.
Terming Amethi, represented by Rahul Gandhi, as UP’s “most backward district”, Modi asserted he would turn it around in the next 60 months in such a way that it would be a fit model for a case study. “I have not come here for revenge. I have come here for bringing about a change in this constituency which has been neglected by the Gandhi family despite the fact that they represented it for 40 years. You have cheated three generations whose lives have been destroyed and their dreams shattered,” he said attacking the Gandhis.
Modi said the Gandhi family was telling lies that the SP-BSP governments in the State don’t cooperate with the Centre for the development of the district. “You will see the same BSP-SP MlAs and the State Government helping me in developing the district,” he asserted.
The BJP PM candidate also threw a challenge to the entire Gandhi clan for a public debate with the BJP candidate from the seat, Smriti Irani, claiming the “rajparivar” would be unable to name even 10 villages of the constituency while the latter would name 100 villages despite being just one-month-old here.
Reacting to speculation about his future if he failed to become the PM, Modi said he has no worries as he has a tea kettle ready and he would easily go back and sell tea. He returned fire on Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘Smriti who’ jibe saying “she’s my younger sister” and maintained her remark showed the “arrogance” of the Gandhi family. He also took a dig on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for his ‘Modi-thinks-he-is-already-PM’ remark by saying, “aapke mein mooh mein ghee shakkar’.
Reacting to Rahul’s allegation that Modi indulged in politics of anger, the BJP’s PM candidate came out hard against both Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and party president Sonia Gandhi and even late Rajiv Gandhi. He enlisted instances of Rajiv’s “humiliation” of then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister T Anjaiah publicly at the airport when the latter had come to receive him; Sonia’s unceremonious removal of then Congress president Sitaram Kesri and denying even a small piece of land in Delhi for the cremation of former PM Narasimha Rao.
As for Rahul, whom Modi repeatedly called as Rahul Bhaiyya, he reminded him how he had called for tearing off the Ordinance on convicted lawmakers and publicly insulted PM Manmohan Singh. He said it was the Gandhi family which has been indulging politics of anger and not he.
Priyanka later reacted sharply saying Modi insulted her “martyred” father Rajiv Gandhi and accused him of indulging in “low-level” politics. In a statement, she said, “Inhone Amethi ki dharti pe mere shaheed pitaa ka apmaan kiya hai, Amethi ki janta is harkat ko kahbi maaf nahi karegi. Inki neech rajniti ka jawaab mere booth ke karyakartaa denge...Amethi ke ek ek booth se jawaab aayega (They have insulted my martyred father on the soil of Amethi. People of Amethi will never forgive them for this act. Workers in Amethi will reply to their low-level politics. There will be reply from each of the booths).
Modi even did not spare the media, which, he said, committed a sin by not reporting the under-development of Amethi for 40 long years. He also took on the “political pundits” saying the lok Sabha results would prove them all wrong. He further took a swipe at Sonia Gandhi, saying he “understands the worry of the mother. For the last 10 years, she has been trying to see that her son settles down. But when it looks like her effort is being wasted, she is feeling worried”.
Earlier, in Faizabad, with the portrait of lord Ram providing the backdrop, Modi asked people “living” in the birthplace of the Hindu deity to teach the Congress and those who support it a lesson for not fulfilling electoral promises. Modi, however, skirted any reference to his party’s pet theme of building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, which is part of the district and epicentre of Ram Mandir movement, but made several references to lord Ram to exhort people to defeat the Congress, the SP and the BSP and support the BJP.
He took on SP, which is in power in UP, and Mayawati-led BSP, saying they are enemies in lucknow but friends in Delhi. In Ambedkar Nagar, Modi promised to end criminalisation of politics and came down heavily on the UPA Government for not taking care of the interests of farmers and soldiers. He promised to introduce a new system for fixing the minimum support price of all agricultural produce by incorporating costs like seed, fertilisers, power on addition to 50 per cent profit. Modi also accused the Congress of ignoring the country’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.