BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted the people of the country not to vote a political party but to “Vote for India” in the 2014 lok Sabha polls, even as he ridiculed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for “sermons” on the need for fighting corruption in the country.
Seeking to give a new dimension to his party’s campaign for the 2014 lok Sabha polls, at a massive “Maha Garjana” rally attended by around eight lakh people at the MMRDA grounds here, Modi told party supporters: “Normally in elections, votes are sought for political parties. During the past several elections, we have witnessed political parties seeking votes for their outfits. But, in 2014 elections, I would like you not to seek vote for the party but seek vote for the nation. This is because the country is bigger than a political party. I want this message to go from Mumbai ahead of the 2014 polls. I would like to tell the people not to vote for a political party but to vote for the nation.”
Coining new slogans for his party in the run-up to the 2014 lok Sabha polls, Modi asked the large crowds to join him raising slogans like “Vote for India to free country from dynastic rule”, “Vote for India to free country from corruption”, “Vote for India to arrest price rise”, “Vote for India to free country from mal-governance”, “Vote for India for unity of the country”, “Vote for India to usher in clean politics and good governance”, “Vote for India to bring in politics of development” , “vote for India for food, medicine to the needy”, vote for India for poor” “vote for India for educational reforms”, “Vote for India for generating employment to youth” and “vote for India to honour the dignity”, etc. large crowds present at the rally responded enthusiastically to Modi’s call raising slogans that he wanted them to raise.
Poking fun at Rahul Gandhi’s “sermons” on Friday at FICCI Annual General Meeting where he had said that “corruption is bleeding our people dry.. and we must fight corruption with strength and determination”, Modi said that the Congress leader concerned had no locus standi to speak in a manner the latter did.
Without naming Gandhi, Modi said: “The Congress does not believe in development politics. I am surprised that despite the fact that the party has been in power at the Centre for quite some, there leaders speak in public as if they are speaking about some other government. Yesterday, I heard a senior Congress leader speak at a public forum, the leader concerned was speaking against corruption. See the courage of the leader concerned to speak like!”
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate went onto add: “It is ironical that the Congress leader’s speech coincided with the political happenings in Maharashtra where the party-led DF Government has rejected the inquiry commission report which indicted its ministers in Adarsh scam. On one hand, the Maharashtra Government is going out of the way to shield corrupt ministers, on the other the Congress leader concerned is speaking about fighting corruption. Simply put, the Congress does not practise what it preaches.”
Citing another instance of the Congress’ failure to keep its promise, Modi charged that the UPA Government had failed to keep its promise of implementing a welfare scheme for minorities in 90 identified districts in the country. “As part of minority appeasement policy, the Congress had announced a major programme for Muslim in 90 districts of the country and set aside large sums of money. In practice, the Manmohan Singh dispensation has not spent any money on this programme for the last three years.”
He also criticised the Congress-led UPA government for its lack of initiative to bring back thousands of crores of black money stashed away in Swiss banks. Comparing the happenings in BJP-ruled Gujarat with the Congress-governed Maharashtra, Modi said that though both came into existence in 1960 after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Bombay state, “Gujarat has had 14 chief ministers since then, Maharashtra has seen a turnout of 26 chief ministers…. Gujarat has scaled new heights, while there is considerable downslide in progress in Maharshtra.”
“There is rampant corruption in the execution of irrigation projects in Maharashtra... farmers are committing suicide in large numbers. There is acute shortage of power in Maharashtra. If the BJP was in power in Maharashtra, things that we are witnessing today would never have happened,” he said.
Citing the introduction of lBT ( local body tax) in place of octroi as another example of the reeking corruption in Maharshtra, Modi said: “While we have done away with octroi in Gujarat, Maharashtra introduced lBT. lBT is loot Bhatneki Technique”.
“If I talk of Gujarat, some people have stomach pain, so I will talk of Madhya Pradesh,” Modi said. He went onto laud MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for developing the State. “Under Chouhan’s leadership, the State has shed the tag of “Bimaru” State. MP lagged in agricultural sector but the Chouhan Government gave priority to irrigation, he said
The BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, whose speech at times was drowned by enthusiastic slogans like “Modi”, “Modi”… raised by his supporters present at the rally, alluded to the VIP passes extended for his rally extended to chai-wallahs, and said, “The winds of change is blowing in the country now. It is not just chai-wallah who is a VIP. In the coming days, every poor man will be treated as a VIP.”