Raman Singh shed crocodile tears, alleges Cong chief; BJP PM candidate asks her to talk about UPA scams
The Maoist hotbed of Bastar in Chhattisgarh turned into a political war zone on Thursday with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi virtually coming face to face and mincing no words in targeting each other.
Sonia injected a dose of “emotion” among the electorate of the poll-bound State by claiming that the Congress stood for the legacy of making sacrifices and working for the poor and downtrodden without making ‘tall claims and doing nothing’.
At a public meeting in Kondagaon, Sonia also hit out at the Raman Singh Government for shedding “crocodile tears” over killing of Congress leaders in a Maoist attack and blasted him for having failed to deal with Naxal menace.
Sonia’s veiled attack on Modi and Singh elicited a strong reaction from the BJP’s PM candidate, who quickly asked the Congress chief to speak on Coal and 2G spectrum scams of the UPA Government instead of “misleading” the country on issues like development, inflation and employment generation.
Addressing an election rally in Kanker soon after Gandhi’s public meeting in Kondagaon, Modi quipped that scams during the UPA regime were testimony of the fact that the Congress believes in “doing work silently rather than speaking”.
Modi also hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying he was being “arrogant” by refusing to order a probe to ascertain if negligence had led to blasts in his party’s rally in Patna on October 27. He drew a contrast with Raman Singh saying following the Maoist attack wherein several top Congress leaders of the state were killed, the Chief Minister, who was on a yatra, had cancelled his journey and ordered not only a judicial probe but also visited the families of the deceased.
For her part, Sonia found fault with the BJP Government for “persistent poverty” in Chhattisgarh and claimed Raman Singh dispensation could not capitalise on the assistance provided from the Centre. She counted on the achievements of the UPA Government in a desperate bid to pull the rug from under the feet of a popular CM.
“Except hollow assurances they have nothing to offer to the masses as they believe in misleading people and dividing them on communal lines in total contrast to the Congress which always united the people. Performance wise was also, the Chhattisgarh Government failed miserably even in implementing the Central schemes effectively,” she said.
Sonia reminded people that while the Congress history was strewn with sacrifices, and flexed muscles with her claims that martyrdom of party leaders, who lost their life in a Maoist attack, would not be forgotten.
Addressing Sonia as “Madam”, Modi countered her comments made about two hours earlier. “You are right, madam. You do everything without saying anything. You (Congress Government) did the coal scam without saying anything.
In the 2G scam also, you did not say anything but did it... Scams took place beneath the earth, on the earth and in the air without you saying anything,” he said.
Modi reminded Sonia that the UPA had promised in run up to the 2009 lok Sabha polls that it will contain inflation within 100 days of coming to power and create one crore jobs every year.
Contending that these promises were not fulfilled, Modi said, “Whatever you say, you do not implement. The nation knows this as well.” Modi again referred to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as Sahzada and claimed he was taking credit for adopting Food Security Bill in the country, a scheme first implemented by the Raman Singh Government.
“People of Chhattisgarh have done an excellent work by voting out the Congress in the first-ever Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh in 2003,”’ Modi said amid cheers and clapping by massive gathering of tribal people of violence-hit Bastar region.
“Chhattisgarh would have been ruined and devastated had the Congress been allowed to govern the State. Chhattisgarh has done a tremendous progress in past 10 years during the BJP rule and now it’s must for the people of the State to allow the BJP Government to continue for rapid development,” Modi remarked.