PUNE: Narendra Modi on Sunday ripped apart the Congress, accusing it of wearing a “burqa of secularism” and “hiding in a bunker” when confronted with a crisis.
Addressing his first rally after being appointed the BJP’s election campaign chief, he said: “They [Congress] promised to eliminate poverty 35 years back… someone should ask them what happened to that promise.” The Gujarat CM was referring to Indira Gandhi’s election call in the 1970s, “garibi hatao”, which was later used by her son Rajiv Gandhi as well.
“Is this not betrayal? The poor of India kept filling their ballot boxes, and now they have directly accepted that they cannot remove poverty,” Modi said. He attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for his party’s “failure” to eradicate poverty.
“Look minutely, whenever Congress is faced with a challenge – whether it is corruption, price rise, directives from the Supreme Court, or a minister being jailed, or the rape of girls or an atmosphere of insecurity – they do not answer the people. The moment there is a crisis, they wear the burqa… and hide in a bunker… Congress will no longer be able to keep the poor hungry, or the young unemployed or distance itself when a girl is raped.”
Sounding the poll bugle, he challenged the Congress, saying: “Chalo Muqabla Karein.”
Earlier, speaking at the inauguration of an amphitheatre at Fergusson College, Modi said: “We’re the youthful country of the world with 65% of our population below 35. But this youth needs a leader who will take them along with him/her, trust them. Everyone in this country is frustrated and full of negative thoughts. It is the need of the hour to rise above this…”
Modi also took a dig at Suresh Kalmadi, Pune MP and former chairman of the Commonwealth Games organizing committee, saying India lost its respect on the international stage by the way the Commonwealth Games were organized.
“A small country like South Korea hosted the Olympics and got international appreciation. But we made fun of ourselves in organizing a small event like the Commonwealth Games…,” he said.
“One country uses sport to bring laurels to itself… and another brings itself dishonor,” the Gujarat chief minister said.
Stressing on the importance of education, Modi said: “We need modernization, not westernization, of our educational system. I support modern education but not blind aping of the West.
“Education has a very big role in nation building… If we want to have a good education system, we should create good teachers. But creating good teachers is not priority now.”
Slamming the education system, he said: “Earlier, education was a man making mission. Now, it has become a money making mission. Was this our tradition?”
Attacking the Congress on its ambitious food security program, the Gujarat chief minister said: “They have brought before the nation a food security bill and are claiming as if a meal has already come on the plates.”
Without naming Rajiv Gandhi, Modi referred to the former prime minister’s remarks about ushering India into the 21st century, saying: “Our ears have got tired of hearing about the 21st century. Did anybody have the vision… how to take India into the 21st century? If anybody had a vision… we would not be standing where we stand now.”
Amid talks of raising foreign direct investment in the defense sector, Modi said: “The country spends more on importing defense equipment and arms than on petroleum products. Do we not have engineers who could manufacture weapons for us, or do we not have the steel to produce such equipment. I tell you, our engineering colleges don’t have defense engineering as a subject.”
Comparing China and India, he said: “In 10 years from 2000, China, which did not have even a single university among the top 500 varsities in the world, now has 32, whereas India, which had two, now has only one. Why did this happen?
How did China do it? It spent almost 20% of its GDP on education. Our government promised to spend 7% but actually spent just 4%.” -PTI
