With Narendra Modi looming large, the Congress on Friday seemingly revived the communal card to attack the Gujarat Chief Minister by raking up the Gujarat riots and apparently, even comparing him with Yamaraj (God of death).
A day after Modi remarked about his wish to serve the country, the party said that it shudders to imagine what would happen if he becomes the PM as he would serve the nation in the same manner as he had served Gujarat, in an obvious reference to the post-Godhra riots in the State in 2002.
This sharp reaction reflects the changed strategy of the Congress which had avoided making any communal attack against Modi after Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Maut ka Saudagar comment had boomeranged for the party in the 2007 Assembly polls.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, the Congress had not made much reference to Gujarat riots and instead focused on development issues to counter him. But having failed to prevent the hat trick for Modi in the assembly polls and his announcement on Thursday about coming to Delhi, an unnerved Congress seems to have again resorted to such attack.
“Had he intended to indicate Narendra Modi he would not have referred to somebody riding a horse but somebody riding a buffalo (yama’s vehicle),” Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi said when asked about whether Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s comment at CII function that a person charged on horseback cannot solve all the problems of the Government.
Rahul has talked about somebody coming on a horse, he must be referring to a messiah, Alvi pointed out.
He said that everyone should repay debt to the nation, but it can be done from a village also and there is no need to come to the Delhi.
“Since Modi desires to serve the country from Delhi, one wonders whether he wants to repay the debt in Delhi in the same manner as he had done in Gujarat. In that case, we can only pray for the God’s mercy.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said, “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.”