Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday gave a high-voltage push to the BJP-NDA’s campaign for the May 16 Kerala Assembly election by unleashing a blistering attack against the Congress-led ruling UDF and the Opposition left. He slammed the UDF Government of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy especially for its alleged insensitivity towards last week’s rape-murder of a Dalit law student and for the infamous solar scam.
“The BJP has only one Mantra: Development. I assure you that we will bring in the development required to change the fortunes of Kerala and to change the future of its youth… You have experimented with others so far. I am requesting you to experiment with the BJP-NDA this time,” Modi said at a BJP-NDA rally at Palakkad.
At his first election programme in Kerala, the Prime Minister blasted the Congress-led front and the left, which had been ruling the State all these years. “We feel proud when we hear people referring to Kerala as God’s Own Country. But the fact is that those who have been ruling here have brought nothing but regression,” he said.
“For five years, it will be Congress rule. For the next five, it will be the left. Then again the Congress comes to power. It is part of an understanding between the two sides to loot the State. This happens because there has been no third force. Give BJP electoral victory. If that happens, we will not allow this to take place,” Modi said.
Addressing the tens of thousands of BJP workers and sympathisers who had gathered at the Fort Grounds in Palakkad in the scorching afternoon sun, the Prime Minister said, “I give my word to you that I won’t let this love and sacrifice of yours go unrewarded. I will return this affection to you… by bringing in development” as the crowd cheered him by chanting, “Modi, Modi”.
Enumerating the difficult situations in which the Centre had worked hard to help Keralites, the Prime Minister said, “When some daughters of Kerala had fallen into the hands of terrorists in the Gulf, the Centre had lost its sleep. Our sister (External Affairs Minister) Sushma Swaraj had worked tirelessly. In the end, we succeeded in bringing them back.”
He also referred to how effectively the Centre had dealt with the Yemen crisis and brought back hundreds of Keralites from the middle of explosions and bullets in that country. But such sensitivity was not being shown by the Government here, he alleged. “A poor Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered last week. But the Government here failed to open its eyes,” he said.
Taunting the Kerala Government over the infamous solar scam, Modi said, “In Kashi, solar energy is helping boatmen to earn a good living. But if the word solar is used in Kerala, a bomb will explode. See the difference! In Varanasi, solar energy powers boats and people’s lives. In Kerala, the Government is run by solar.”
The Prime Minister pointed out that the educated youth of Kerala would not have to go out of the State in search of jobs if there were agriculture-based industries here but the State missed that bus due to its failure to bring modernisation in farming. “How would that happen when there are people who oppose even tractorsIJ” he asked.
Modi also launched an attack against the CPI(M) while referring to the political violence taking place in Kerala. “Politics of murder is integral to the communists (CPI(M)). So many of our activists were killed by them just because they could not counter us ideologically,” the Prime Minister said.
Announcing his adage for BJP-NDA’s election campaign in Malayalam, “Nammal Onnaavanam, Naadu Nannaavanam” (We should unite for the land to progress), Modi said the NDA would become a strong third force in the State with this election. The Prime Minister will return to Kerala on Sunday to address more campaign rallies.