Modi's attack on UPA: Govt runs on whims of crown prince

Amid complete silence from the Congress party and the UPA government, it was left to the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to come to the defence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was called a “dehati aurat” by his Pakistani counterpart during an informal press briefing, just hours ahead of his meeting with Singh. India must protest such an insult strongly, Modi said, speaking to a crowd of about 4 lakh people gathered at New Delhi’s Japanese Park ground in Rohini, his first rally in Delhi. Even if the BJP opposes the UPA on home ground, the party will stand up for the country’s prime minister at a global forum, he said, following it up with his footnote on what circumstances have led the statesman-like prime minister of India to be made the subject of such disparaging comments abroad. [caption id=“attachment_114033” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Modi staked his claim for the PM job at his first rally in the capital. AFP[/caption] “Nawaz sharif ki kya aukaat hai?” Modi bellowed. “The prime minister is senior to him, he should at least have respected his age. It’s because the PM’s own party has insulted him. His own party leaders call the PM nonsense,” Modi said, playing to the gallery. Referring to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi preferring not to wait for Singh to return from the key UN summit before suddenly stating his “personal opinions” on the UPA’s ordinance protecting convicted politicians, Modi said the “whims” of the “crownprince” of the Congress party must not colour the fate of the country or the stature of the prime minister abroad. “The Congress has taken off the prime minister’s turban," he said. He was “deeply hurt” by Nawaz Sharif’s comments, he said earlier, demanding that the country and the PM register a strong protest with Pakistan’s prime minister when the two meet later today. “The nation has its doubts about you,” he declared his message to Manmohan Singh. Sharif’s comments came in the wake of a widely acclaimed address by Singh at the United Nations General Assembly, where he said Pakistan was at the “epicenter of terrorism” and that no conclusive talks on Indo-Pak relations would be possible so long as Pakistan continued to allow its soil to be used for aiding and abetting terrorism aimed at India. While Modi did not make a reference to the PM’s speech at the UNGA, he claimed that Singh had, in reaching out to US President Barack Obama, portrayed India as a poor nation. “This is poverty marketing,” he alleged. He also took a well-timed potshot at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi: “Is this poverty only a state of the mind?” The rest of his speech, which lasted over an hour, progressed along the expected trajectory. While plentiful jibes at the ruling coalition would follow, he went straight for the jugular in the first minute of his speech, calling the government a deadweight that India needs to cast away. “Across the world, governments are the people’s strength. It’s only in Delhi that people are burdened by the deadweight of governments.” The mother and son duo leading the Congress party appear to have their own individual governments, he said, not to mention the independent fiefdoms of the UPA’s constituent parties. “There is a war underway between democracy and dynastic rule. The whims of the princeling must not decide the country’s fate. Democracy must trump dynasty," he said. There were some references to Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit – but this was clearly not a rally just for the Assembly polls. He called on India’s electorate to vote out the UPA after “suffering” them for 10 years. “The country now needs a Dream Team, not a Dirty Team. Kick out the dirty team, bring in the dream team to put India on the road to progress," he said. Earlier, former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari hit out at the apparent fear mongering by the Congress regarding the Gujarat chief minister’s outlook towards minorities. “We are against terrorism, not against minorities,” he said. “Under a BJP government, there will be no discrimination on the basis of caste or community – everybody will get equal opportunities for development.”