In a hectic tour of four of the ten districts of the newborn State of Telangana, Narendra Modi sorted out the glitches in the BJP’s relationship with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and addressed gigantic rallies with Chandrababu Naidu in Mahbubnagar and Hyderabad on Tuesday evening.
The 2014 election is critical for the nation, he said, but it is even more crucial for Telangana because 1100 martyrs braved bullets and immolated themselves to keep the cause alive, and now the State built on their sacrifices must lay the foundations for the next hundred years by choosing the next Government at the Centre with care.
It was the sinful Congress that fired the bullets on the martyrs; now the people must respect their sacrifices and the sufferings of their mothers, widows and sisters. Telangana is now a reality on the map of India, he said, but that will have no meaning unless proper fate-lines (bhagya ki lakeer) are drawn on the palms of the people.
Upbeat over the packed-like-sardines gathering at LB Stadium in Hyderabad, Narendra Modi said all calculations by political pundits would fail because the election is being fought by 125 crore people for the realisation of their aspirations and dreams, and therefore, one plus one plus one is not three, but Pawan Kalyan plus Chandrababu garu plus Modi amount to 111.
As the crowd roared in approval, he said whether it is Telangana or Seemandhra, Telugus everywhere in the world must recall how the Congress dynasty has behaved with them. When Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Rajiv Gandhi was only a general secretary of the party, he publicly humiliated the elected Chief Minister T Anjaiah of united Andhra Pradesh and reduced him to tears at Hyderabad airport for no fault, and then removed him from office summarily. The result was that the Congress lost the State for 20 long years.
Even prior to that, the party chose N Sanjeeva Reddy as its official candidate for the post of President of India, and Indira Gandhi herself signed his nomination papers, and then stabbed him in the back by getting VV Giri elected. Then, there is the case of PV Narasimha Rao who, Narendra Modi said, will be acknowledged by history as one of our successful Prime Ministers. The parivar, he said, could never digest this, and to this date, though there are schemes galore in the name of the dynasty stalwarts, there is not a single Government programme or project in honour of Narasimha Rao. So deep is the dislike that he is not respected even on his birth and death anniversaries.
What would be the fate of Hyderabad, the BJP leader mused, if Sardar Patel had not courageously united the nation? We would need a visa to visit Hyderabad, he responded, and said that the Nehru parivar hated the Sardar and never lost an opportunity to insult him.
The manner in which Telangana was created had depressed him, he told the crowd that listened enrapt, “I worried about the future of both new states, kaun sambhalega, and I accused the Congress that BJP had fought for Telangana, gone to jail and suffered lathis (beatings), but Congress played a game in Parliament and hurt the sentiments of both Telangana and Seemandhra”. The Congress behaved like a doctor that helped give birth to a child by killing the mother, he said, adding that this really upset him, but then Pawan Kalyan came to see him in Gandhinagar and, “I saw the dreams in his eyes, his commitment for the Telugu spirit, his anxiety for the youth, that they should not be led astray”.
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had created three new states without acrimony, without shedding a drop of blood, he reminded his audience, but in Telangana 1100 young men died, and they did not die for a line on the map or to send MPs to Parliament, but for the future of the State. And Congress played a dirty game here too. While BJP took the abuses of people for helping to create the new State, the Congress MPs threw chili powder in Parliament to checkmate the process!
Condemning the party for repeating the unkept promise of creating 10 crore jobs in its 2014 manifesto, he said Atal Bihari Vajpayee created six crore jobs in just six years while Congress created only 1.25 crore jobs in 10 years. Hence the youth, particularly those in the age group of 18-28 years, should think carefully before voting for the next government, because their future was at stake.
Bad governance is the root of India’s problem, he said, and Hyderabad which was flourishing as a major international city some years ago, has been ruined by the Congress. As Chandrababu Naidu smiled at this vindication of his development model, the BJP veteran said that development is the road map of the future, and we must keep pace with the world by opting for a Digital India and mobile governance.
The Supreme Court today has frowned upon the UPA for not being serious in bringing back illegal wealth stashed abroad, Narendra Modi said, and pledged to do all in his power to bring this looted wealth back to serve the poor and benefit honest tax payers, if elected to power at the Centre. The CBI, he charged, is not being used to fight corruption but for political reasons.
At Mahbubnagar, the BJP veteran said that farmers commit suicide in the region for lack of water, as happens in Maharashtra also. But, he said derisively, Rahul bhaiya (Congress vice president) came here on Monday and sang the same old song of building an irrigation project. What, thundered Narendra Modi, was the Congress doing for the past ten years? Was it busy with 2G or the coal scam? The coal scam was holding up major power generation projects and the farmers and people are suffering. In response to the genuine needs of farmers, the BJP manifesto has devised a fair and scientific formula for determining the minimum support price, he said, while urging the people to return the BJP-TDP alliance to the Centre and State.
Earlier at Nizamabad where he addressed enthusiastic crowds along with cine star Pawan Kalyan and BJP state unit chief Kishan Reddy, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said that his party had always supported the aspirations of the people but the manner in which the Congress executed the plan was like a doctor delivering a child by killing the mother. In the process, the spirit of Telangana, the Telugu spirit, the language, culture and traditions that nurture like a mother, were grievously injured. It is difficult to raise a child properly without a mother, he said, adding that the challenge now is to nurture both Telangana and Seemandhra and save the Telugu spirit. The Congress cannot be trusted to do justice to the Telugu people, he said, reminding them of the fate of Chief Minister T Anjaiah and Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao.
Urging the people to carefully lay the foundation for a strong future, he said the youth of the region go to the Gulf countries for employment, but the question is whether life is safe there and whether they get their full dues from employers. Who will protect their rights if the Centre does not, he asked, and said a strong Government in Delhi was the need of the hour.
Turmeric is grown in abundance in this region, he said, and abroad much research is being done about its medicinal value, so much so that America even tried to patent this Indian product. But the Government of India has never endeavoured any value addition for this natural resource, despite the high rate of farmer suicides.
At Karimnagar, Narendra Modi reminded the people that when he came in 2009 to seek support for Vidya Sagar Rao (the BJP candidate in 2014 as well), he had said that if the people returned the BJP to power at the Centre, the party would create Telangana within 100 days, as this was an old commitment of the party. Now, the people must decide which party will truly benefit the nascent State.
The mother-son duo cannot inspire faith, he said, because the family had never respected the sentiments of the region, as evidenced by their behaviour towards T Anjaiah and Narasimha Rao. More pertinently, this time the dynasty is extremely angry with Telangana for cutting its nose and will extract a price if Congress is returned to power, he warned, an allusion to Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao refusing to merge his party or even make an electoral alliance with Congress after extracting the new State in the last days of the outgoing regime. Urging the people to reject the KRS, he asserted with confidence that the next Government at the Centre would be led by the BJP and Telangana would benefit by forging a relationship with it.
Earlier, galvanizing Maharashtra voters on the last day of campaigning in the State, from the historic Maratha Confederacy of Khandesh, which includes Nandurbar and Dhule constituencies, Narendra Modi said that the region is intimately connected to neighbouring Gujarat because when the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor is completed, it will first benefit Gujarat and then Dhule.
Addressing enthusiastic crowds at Dhule, where he stressed the need for a strong railway network to stimulate growth, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said that the cotton farmers of Jalgaon and Dhule had to come to Gujarat in trucks to sell their produce because the Union Agriculture Minister had done nothing for them, though he hailed from this State. Instead, it was the Gujarat Chief Minister who opened separate banks for the Maharashtra farmers to deposit their money from the sale, so that they could return home safely, without fear.
Pointing out that the Congress had a poor vision for development, the BJP veteran said that instead of setting up power plants in close proximity to the coal pit-head, and then transmitting it where needed, the Congress transported coal 2000 kms away to produce electricity, which it then sent back! The same was true of cotton, which travelled to Coimbatore and other places to be transformed into fabrics. His own vision, he said, is more integrated, so that in the vicinity of cotton farming region, the fibre, fabric and garments are produced and marketed.
Denouncing the Congress propaganda that if the BJP comes to power at the Centre it will take away the rights of adivasis and backward castes and will put an end to reservations, Narendra Modi said the Congress deserved a PhD in telling lies, and asked if he had deprived anyone of any right in the 14 years of his rule in Gujarat. Did Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee take away anyone’s rights in the six years of his rule? The benefits of reservation, he emphasised, are enshrined in the Constitution and are the gift of Babasaheb Ambedkar, and not the Congress or even the BJP. No one can take these away, he said, adding that he was a great devotee of Dr Ambedkar because he had poverty in his childhood and appreciated the Adivasi, Dangar, Koli, Mali and backward classes’ fight for social justice.
The mother-son duo, he said, have lost their mental balance because they see defeat staring at them in the face, so their language has become lose and irresponsible. Sharad Pawar had seen the writing on the wall and decided against contesting the elections and being humiliated in his old age. Urging the people to vote in large numbers on April 24, he said the renowned Dr Subhash Bhamre had quit the prestigious Tata Cancer Hospital to serve the poor backward Adivasis directly, and they could not get a better representative to send to Parliament.
Niticentral.com, 23 April 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/22/congress-killed-telugu-spirit-narendra-modi-215066.html