Stepping up his attack on Defence Minister AK Antony, NDA’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said in Kasaragod, Kerala on Tuesday that the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-headed lDF had allowed the State to become a “nursery of terror” even as BJP leader lK Advani asserted in Thiruvananthapuram that the NDA would form the government this time.
“Kerala is god’s own country, which is supposed to welcome tourists, but unfortunately it is becoming a nursery of terrorism,” Modi said while alleging that the politics of understanding between the UDF and the lDF, the two fronts which had been ruling the State alternately, was responsible for all its social and economic ills.
Addressing a huge election rally organised as part of the campaign of BJP candidate K Surendran in Kasaragod, Kerala’s northernmost constituency, Modi said, “Antony or the UPA Government in which he is a prominent member is not doing anything to alter the destiny of Kerala’s skilled and educated youth of having to search for jobs elsewhere.”
“Why should young people of god’s own country have to go outside to find their livelihoodIJ The reason is the friendly match going on between UDF and lDF. The Congress is like a water melon. Its outside is green while its inside is red,” he said. Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram are the two seats the BJP is pinning its hopes on to “open account” in Kerala.
Modi raked up the beheading of an Indian soldier and the killing of two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast by two Italian Marines to attack Antony and the UPA regime. “I have a simple question to Antony and Kerala CM Oommen Chandy. Can they tell me which prison those two Italian Marines are lodged in presentlyIJ” he asked.
“Our soldiers were killed and beheaded by the Pakistan Army. The Defence Minister gave a statement in Parliament saying that the act was committed by those who came in Pakistani uniform. Antony’s statement helped the Pakistani Army and triggered dances in that country while our soldiers were unhappy with that statement,” Modi alleged.
In his speech which was virtually a lamentation on the miserable fate of Kerala under the UDF and the UPA, Modi said the Union Government, Antony the Congress-led regime in Kerala were doing nothing to solve the problems the NRIs from Kerala, on whose money it depended, were experiencing in foreign countries.
“Kerala boasts of its high educational standards. But reports show that atrocities against women are on the rise. Of the 10 States which record the highest number of crimes against women, six are ruled by the Congress and the remaining four are ruled with Congress support. No BJP-ruled State is in this list,” Modi said.
Pointing at the lack of development in Kerala, Modi said Kerala was not even producing enough salt to satisfy its own needs despite the fact that it had a coastline of about 600 kilometers. “If enough attention is given and the required steps are taken, Kerala can supply the entire salt the nation needs,” he said.
Arriving in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday morning for addressing an election rally for BJP candidate O Rajagopal, senior party leader Advani said that the NDA was sure to form government in the Centre after the election. “The common feeling is that this time there will be a change of government,” he told newsmen.
“Will the BJP get a clear majority or not, this I will not be able to say. But I am sure that it will be the highest ever we have got and the next government will be formed by the NDA,” he said. “Rajagopal was a Union minister earlier though he was not a lok Sabha MP. I hope that this time he will be a lok Sabha MP and a Union Minister,” Advani added.