launching a fresh offensive against Narendra Modi, the Congress has picked up former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s oft-quoted comment expressing dismay over Modi not following “rajdharma (ruler’s duty)” in controlling the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
Putting up Vajpayee’s quotation prominently on its official website along with his photograph, the ruling party claimed that Modi not following his “rajdharma (A ruler’s duty),” was the fundamental cause of the former prime minister’s pain. The website also said in its advertisement “Just think! Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vapayee did not think this man deserved to be chief minister, can you put the country’s future in his handsIJ”
Rubbishing Congress charges, BJP said the ruling party was showing its “utter desperation” by heaping praise on Vajpayee to attack Modi and said this attempt was aimed at downplaying its “imminent” defeat in the lok Sabha elections.
Stating this, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said “one notices with curiosity that Congress party is describing Vajpayee as a great leader on its website when it is one of the worst critics of his performance as the Prime Minister of India and consciously downplays his exemplary performance of governance.”
The Congress website says “no leader in the BJP can match the stature of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was clear what was the reason for the defeat. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to control the communal pogrom in his state in 2002. He believed that the party will lose its credibility unless it took action against Modi. (sic)”
The party went on to quote former Union minister and expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who was close to Vajpayee, as saying that Vajpayee had threatened to resign unless the BJP took action against Modi.
Accusing the main opposition party of distancing itself from the Vajpayee legacy, the Congress website said, “there is nobody to remind BJP of its “raj dharma”. How can a person whom the tallest leader of the BJP wanted removed as chief minister, be the party’s Prime Ministerial candidateIJ”
Congress said “having found a new icon in Modi, the BJP is working hard to distance itself from the Vajpayee legacy,” and asked whether a chief minister “who failed to protect his citizens, who discriminated between people on the basis of religion, who made a mockery of people’s suffering, ever make a good Prime MinisterIJ How can a person who failed in his Rajdharma as chief minister ever ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of IndiaIJ.”