Virtually carpet bombing the Congress-NCP bastion of Maharashtra with back-to-back rallies at Amravati, Akola and Nanded on Sunday, Narendra Modi appealed to the jam-packed assemblies to vote for a stable and functional Government that could take the country forward and overcome the stagnation of the past ten years. Berating the coalition for refusing to supply drinking water to the huge crowds (virat sabha) in the strong sunshine, he said the willingness of the people to suffer this inconvenience in order to listen to him in person indicated the way the wind was blowing (hawa ka ruk).
The highly responsive crowds at all venues were a sharp contrast to the Congress vice president’s meeting in Maoist-infested Gadchiroli on Saturday, where the crowds walked off while he was speaking, forcing him to plead with them to stay before abruptly concluding. In his speech, Rahul Gandhi listed the MNREGA, RTI and the Forest Rights Act as achievements of the UPA and critiqued the BJP for thinking that “one man can change the country’s fortune”.
At Akola on Sunday, that ‘one man’ fired his own salvo, asking the people if the ‘shehzade’ had explained what the Congress-dominated UPA coalition had done in the past decade, and asking if their work had been done “by day or by night (surreptitiously), in India or abroad (an allusion to foreign contrasts), by whom and why”. His insinuations were not lost on the crowd, which roared in appreciation. Claiming that the Government has no right to dodge responsibility and criticise the Opposition, Narendra Modi pointed out that in the Gujarat Assembly election of 2012, he had explained his record to the people and that is why, though the Congress told lies and the ‘shehzade’ came (to Gujarat) in 2004, 2009 and 2012, he (Gandhi) could not fly his kite.
Challenging the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to explain why he suddenly imposed a ban on cotton exports two years ago, Narendra Modi said the ban was illogical and inexplicable and caused losses to the tune of Rs 7000 crore to Gujarat farmers in one season alone. The figures would be much steeper in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, he observed. Though he did not elaborate, observers were quick to point out that the price volatility caused by the ban would yield higher trading profits to some. The Gujarat Chief Minister said it was shameful that the Union Agriculture Minister hails from Maharashtra and even then the farmers in the State commit suicide almost daily.
Condemning the Pink Revolution and the subsidy given to mutton exports, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate charged that this was a conspiracy to destroy the animal wealth of the nation as no farmer can survive by agriculture alone, and needs animals and the capacity to sell milk as a standby. The subsidy on mutton exports, he said, could have been better utilised in building warehouses and cold storage plants, thereby protecting grains from rotting in the open and preventing wastage of fruits and vegetables.
Asking farmers if the State Agricultural University was of any use to the farmers, he mocked that the Congress-NCP regime does not understand that research in the laboratory must be taken to the land. The Maharashtra farmer got modest yields of 324 kg of cotton per hectare, he said, but the corresponding figure in Gujarat was 630 kg/ha.
Earlier, at Amravati, the ‘suicide belt’ of Maharashtra, Narendra Modi attacked the Congress-NCP and said that Sharad Pawar should focus on mitigating the issues that led to farmer deaths rather than devoting his time to cricket. Critiquing the Congress leaders for not knowing what poverty is, he said that the Congress cannot understand the pain of the poor who sleep on cold nights without a shelter over their heads. Countering Rahul Gandhi’s claim that the balloon of the Gujarat model would soon burst, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial contender said that the Gujarat model was found to be the most developed by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, so the Congress vice president should direct his questions to Chairperson Sonia Gandhi!
Blasting the Congress for giving a ticket to the tainted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Narendra Modi said this gave the lie to Rahul Gandhi’s claims that the party would not compromise with corruption and that there would be a probe against Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing scam. By nominating him to fight the parliamentary election, he said, the Congress has exposed its attitude towards “our heroes and our armed forces”.
Emphasising that this is not a question of one building in Mumbai, the BJP leader said, “Adarsh is about Indian soldiers and who stole from them” and asked if there should be a scam over the widows of heroes who died in Kargil. Vowing that the BJP would not spare the guilty if voted to power, Narendra Modi said, “We stand for clean politics. We will set up special courts to try these cases and punish the guilty”.
Raising the issue of black money, he said that those with money stashed abroad naturally do not want the money to be brought back to the country, but the BJP is committed to bringing back “every single paisa” for the benefit of the poor. The Congress, he said, will not touch the black money “because they know to whom this money belongs”.
Rubbishing the Congress manifesto as an attempt to fool the people, he said the party had failed on every front and its tally in each State would not touch even double digits. Greeting the people on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, he urged them to pledge to rid the country of the Congress and its associated parties.
Later in the evening, the Gujarat veteran attended huge gatherings at Bijapur and Gokak in Karnataka.
Niticentral.com, 31 March 2014