No more Dhoom3 for Congress: Narendra Modi
In the first installment of his response to Rahul Gandhi’s intemperate attack on him at Doda on Friday, Narendra Modi attacked the Congress vice-president for travelling inRajasthan on a stolen motorcycle with a history sheeter, thundered against the grabbing of farmers’ lands by his brother-in-law, and challenged the Government of India and the Congress to clarify questions pertaining to the alleged foreign bank accounts of Captain Amarinder Singh’s wife and son. The Election Commission, he asserted firmly, needs to play its role in the matter.
Speaking to a large gathering at Pachpadra in Barmer, Rajasthan, where the BJP has fielded Colonel Sonaram, Narendra Modi noted that when the ‘shehzada’ came to the region some days ago, he was nostalgic about the movie Dhoom 3. The BJP PrimeMinisterial contender said he wondered why, and then recalled the shehzada’s own escapade on a motorcycle.
As the crowd broke into a roar, he continued jocularly that the Congress vice-president came to Gopalgarh in Bharatpur district at the time of the riots in 2009, without informing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and moved about secretly on a motorcycle in a Dhoom 3 style. “Do you know whose vehicle it was?” he asked, and the crowd shouted in union that it was a stolen bike! “Who was driving?” he asked next, and the people responded, “A history sheeter!”
“No wonder he remembered Dhoom 3,” the Gujarat strongman mused. “There a father-son do kamaal (magic) and everything disappears (gets stolen), here in the nation we have a mother-son khel (game), but this time, though they have succeeded two times, this time there will be no Dhoom 3,” he prophesied.
Pointing out that Barmer has the best land for solar energy, an area in which Gujarat has many accomplishments, he lamented the former Chief Minister had worked for “damaad power” (an allusion to Robert Vadra) and allowed the land of farmers to be cornered by the latter.
Thundering that the nation has been looted by corrupt persons who have stashed wealthin foreign banks and are loathe to bring the money back, he put the media in the dock for ignoring the news that broke two days ago to the effect that the Congress candidate from Amritsar, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, had not declared foreign bank accounts (in Geneva) of his wife and son in his affidavit before the Election Commission. This was made mandatory by the Election Commission from this year.
Since a serious issue has been raised before the Election Commission, the BJP veteran said, the Commission should play its role in bringing out the truth, ideally before the elections. As this is not a small issue, he exhorted the Government of India to declare the Captain innocent and save him if the allegations are untrue. Insisting that the BJP was not interested in ruining innocent lives, Narendra Modi said that Sonia ji and shehzada ji should tell the truth to the nation. If the Congress cannot tell, then after May 16, the new Government would unveil the truth before the people,” he guaranteed. “How did so much money come; you have to answer,” he said.
Adding a frisson of excitement to the heated political atmosphere, Narendra Modi promised people that a new scandal was about to be revealed. Insisting that Congress was in terminal decline and would get zero seats in some States including Rajasthan, he said it would not touch two digits in many states and would struggle to reach three digits on an all-India basis. Knowing this, the party is now focusing upon dirty tricks (gandi harkate mein vyast), but nothing would come of it. Pointing out that for the past 10 years, each and every agency of the Government of India, whether IB or CBI, had struggled to implicate him in some case or other and send him to jail, filing cases in so many courts, he said they still failed to hurt his prestige in the eyes of the people. “Madam Sonia ji, your sultanate did overtime to ruin me, main tap karke nikla hoon, but you are still trying, and the people will give a befitting reply (karara jawaab)”, he asserted.
BJP, he averred, was in the political arena only on the twin issues of su-rajya and development, and as promised in its manifesto, it would implement special plans for desert regions like Kutch and Barmer. Such ideas when implemented in Kutch after the famous Bhuj earthquake had made it the fastest growing district of Gujarat in just 10 years, and it was now growing and exporting mangoes. Barmer could thrive similarly, he said, once the river linking vision of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was implemented and flood waters diverted to drought prone areas.
Directing the people’s attention to neighbouring Pakistan, he said much was being done there in the field of gas and petroleum, and this must be a priority in Barmer also as it belongs to the same landmass. He urged the youth of the region to study at the Petroleum University in Gujarat so that they could avail of future employment opportunities.
Narendra Modi attacked the politics of vote-banks which laid out red carpets for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh but shunned refugees from Pakistan. As the crowd chanted in approval, he said those forced to flee from Pakistan deserve rights in India and must be treated as equal citizens of this land.
At Saladiya in Banswara district, Rajasthan, a region that has given several jawans and martyrs to the Army, Narendra Modi lamented that the recent Congress regime that did not see fit to erect a memorial for the fallen soldiers as had been done by the Gujarat Government at the Kutch border. The UPA Government at the Centre was similarly indifferent and did not even give the region a Sainik School; it remained unmoved when a jawan was beheaded by Pakistan.
Railing against the previous regime for the closure of the copper industry which had put 10,000 workers out of work, the Gujarat veteran said the policy paralysis at the Centre had destroyed the value of the rupee. In contrast, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had dared to undertake a series of nuclear tests at Pokharan and brave the outrage and economic sanctions imposed by the world by reaching out to overseas Indians and ensuring that the rupee did not fall. Today, an economist Prime Minister has put the rupee in the ICU.
Listing serial failures of the Ashok Gehlot regime, which was sharply rebuked by the Rajasthan High Court and even the Supreme Court, he pointed out that the physical environment of Rajasthan was very similar to Gujarat as both had deserts, less rain and few rivers, but determination had solved the crisis of drinking water and irrigation in Gujarat. He wound up the day with a packed rally at Pune, Maharashtra.
Narendra Modi addressing a Public Meeting in Pachpadara, Rajasthan
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/12/no-more-dhoom3-for-congress-narendra-modi-210902.html