The land of Kerala is so beautiful that it is justly reputed as ‘God’s own country’, but it is blighted by the continuous exodus of its youth for employment abroad due to the absence of opportunities at home despite the sheer abundance of natural resources that can be marketed to advantage. As a consequence, the State has degenerated into a veritable “nursery of terrorism”, Narendra Modi said at his Bharat Vijay Rally at Kasargod on Tuesday.
As the Parliamentary elections gather steam, with the second phase due on April 9 (northeastern states) and the third phase on April 10 (Kerala; Haryana; the Union Territories of Andaman, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Delhi; along with parts of J&K, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh), Narendra Modi raced across Kerala and Karnataka to reach out to as many voters as possible.
Kerala has such a wealth of natural resources that it can easily dominate the world market in areas like herbal medicine. The holistic health care facilities once attracted the attention of the world, as did its idyllic tourist destinations, but these industries have suddenly cooled off. The coastline is one of the longest in the country, and yet the State imports salt from outside when it has the capacity to produce enough salt to feed the nation.
The reason that intelligent and industrious youth leave the State en masse for employment abroad, and fuel its money order economy, Narendra Modi diagnosed, is the serial “friendly matches” between the UDF and the LDF, which guarantees a five year term to each side by rotation. Their mutual understanding ensures that each side does not do anything to punish the corruption of the other when in power, and so the “game” goes on, he said. The LDF holds a red flag (communist symbol) and the Congress, he mocked as the crowd roared with laughter, is like a watermelon (tarbooj), green on the outside but red inside!
Kerala once enjoyed a reputation as a peaceful state, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate pointed out. It was renowned for education, respect for women, culture, but now it is one of the top 10 States for crime against women, he lamented. All these top 10 States are ruled by the Congress or its allied parties, and not one of them is ruled by the BJP, he added pointedly. He blamed the UDF and LDF for this state of affairs.
The youth who seek employment abroad leave unhappy parents behind. Nor is their life safe, the Gujarat strongman said, as their passports are seized; they do not get holidays when they need them and are often deprived of their salaries and exploited. He accused the Government of India, and particularly Kerala ministers like AK Antony, for doing nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the migrant labour.
Kerala farmers, he pointed out, have suffered grievously after using endosulphan as a fertiliser. As many as 50,000 farmers have become prematurely old and their bodies are wracked with disease, but the Government of India has not taken any action against the company that markets the chemical, nor has it banned the chemical. Even worse, it has failed to implement the package to help the farmers. Nothing is done to benefit fishermen either, though satellite technology can help fishermen to earn more with less effort, as has been done in Gujarat.
Raising the ante against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Defence Minister AK Antony, Narendra Modi questioned the status of the case against the Italian marines who had killed two fishermen of Kasargod. “In which jail are the Italian marines lodged,” he asked, knowing full well that they are living in the Italian embassy in New Delhi and the case seems to be going nowhere.
Targetting the Defence Minister in his home State, the Gujarat veteran said that the day an Indian jawan was beheaded on the border, Antony said in Parliament that ‘terrorists wearing the Pakistani army uniform had killed the soldier’. He said this, Narendra Modi thundered, “to save the Pakistani Army. All of Pakistan was happy, the television applauded. Now I say to you (Antony), please do something for our defence forces also”.
Dismissing the Congress manifesto as a betrayal, the BJP veteran said that in 2004 the party manifesto promised to fight terrorism from Pakistan; in 2009 it said there would be zero tolerance for terrorism, but in the past 10 years the nation has been the rise of Maoism and insurgency and no action on terror. “I ask Sonia ji, shehzade, Defence Minister, Prime Minister, what is this irresponsible attitude? When the Army Chief wrote a letter warning that Indian tanks did not have ammunition, did you do anything? Our air defence is 97 per cent out of date. Infantry does not have night vision glasses. Why did the Naval Chief have to resign? Why are there so many accidents or incidents of sabotage involving our submarines?” he questioned and added that several aircraft have fallen from the skies and taken the lives of young pilots; all these issues demand answers. Yet the Government is more interested in “defence deals” rather than in “defence power.” This is the reason why national security is in danger.
At Koppal, Karnataka, Narendra Modi pointed out that the region was famous for its Pink Granite, which could fetch handsome prices abroad, besides generating local employment. But the Congress regime was only interested in the Pink Revolution and the export of mutton and had no time to devote to developing the State.
The Congress president and vice president, he said, recently claimed to have removed poverty in the villages with MNREGA. Ridiculing this prized welfare scheme of the UPA, he said, MNREGA is nothing more that “picking up from here and putting there; it is the same mud and the same ditch; and money moves … that is MNREGA”. Questioning where the funds have gone, he claimed that out of 73,000 families in Koppal alone which applied for work under MNREGA, only 4000 got work for 100 days.
The Congress shehzade, he said, as the crowd shouted in glee at the allusion to Rahul Gandhi, brags that the party gave the people RTI (the Right to Information). But did RTI put anything in the pocket of ordinary citizens, he queried, as the people responded with a hearty “NO”, did RTI achieve anything in terms of bringing back black money or the crores looted in corruption scams like 2G? Even coal was stolen, and in Karnataka, things degenerated to the extent that toilets were stolen on public crossroads!
The situation, Narendra Modi taunted, is akin to a hunter walking in a forest and being confronted by a lion while his weapon is in his car. Thus helpless, the hunter pulls his licence out of his pocket and flashes it at the lion. Can this stop the lion, the Gujarat veteran asked, and replied that in a similarly useless manner, “this corrupt regime keeps chanting RTI, RTI”. The country has been looted too much; he said, and darkness hangs over the youth. The government has no interest in skill development for youth or water for farmers and fair prices for their harvest. It prefers to let grain rot for the benefit of alcohol producers. This government, he concluded, has lost is mandate and must go.
Later, at Mysore, paying rich tributes to the late Maharaja, Narendra Modi said that the practice of worshipping one family has devalued the office of the Prime Minister, whereas the worship of the 125 crore people would have salvaged the nation. Berating the Congress vice president for his statement that the country needed not one (Modi) chowkidar but 125 crore guards, he challenged him to reply if these watchmen would include his (Rahul Gandhi’s) brother-in-law also? The Adarsh housing society in Mumbai, he pointed out, was built in the name of the widows of Kargil martyrs, and the flats given to the close relations of the ruling Congress, and the accused Ashok Chavan was later given a party nomination. Is this the quality of chowkidars to which the Congress will entrust the nation, he asked.
Pointing out that the BJP manifesto has promised to develop infrastructure for 50 tourism circuits in the country, Narendra Modi said that when he could entice people to come to see the White Rann in Gujarat, then Karnataka with its rich heritage in Mysore, Hampi, Coorg et al has so much with which to attract visitors. The immense diversity of India with its people, culture, food, dress, language, was beheld as a wonder by the world and a rich slice of the $ 3trillion tourist trade was ours for the taking. Hence, he concluded, he offered the people his package of progress (vikas), good governance (suraaj) and development.
Narendra Modi also addressed packed rallies at Bagalkot and Bangalore. Promising to realise the dreams of the people and to make their ambitions his dreams, he condemned the Congress vice president for claiming that his father (late Rajiv Gandhi) had brought the Information Technology (IT) Revolution to India. The country, the Gujarat veteran thundered, knows full well that the Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee brought the IT Act for the first time in 2000, and now, standing on the land of IT professionals, Bangalore, he challenged the ‘shehzade’ to state if it was true that at the time of the NDA Government, India’s software export grew at the rate of 40 per cent; which came down to 30 per cent in UPA I and now under UPA II has dwindled to 9 per cent”. What will happen to future of youth, he decried, the policies of the Congress are responsible for this state of affairs.
The Rupee is weak due to the current account deficit, which means that exports are far less than imports. One of the highest items of import is electronic goods, and this is one sector where India can be a manufacturing hub in its own right. Unless remedial measures are taken, Narendra Modi said, then by 2020, our petroleum imports will be surpassed by white good imports and the rupee will not even be able to breathe.
Lambasting the Aadhaar card which is now derided even by the Supreme Court, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate said that UPA representatives who came to meet him officially, were not able to answer his questions on national security, illegal immigrants, the security of coastal states, and even when he raised these questions in the National Security Council, nothing happened. Rubbishing the claims of the Congress vice president on the issues of skill development and employment, he said it is a joke that instead of giving answers, the Congress was seeking accountability from the Opposition. He told his enrapt audience about the awesome achievements made by Gujarat, under his leadership, in the reconstruction of Bhuj after the earthquake of 2001.
Condemning the UPA as a lame duck regime that is limping badly, he said the need of the hour is a strong and assertive Government that commands respect abroad. Predicting that the Congress would not open its account in some states and would not touch double digits in others, he said the party would have difficulty reaching the three digit figure nationwide. He exhorted the people to give the BJP 300-plus seats and also enable it to open its account in Kerala so that the charade of parties that fight in Kerala and unite in Delhi can be brought to an end.
Niticentral.com, 8 April 2014·
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/08/kerala-now-a-nursery-of-terrorism-modi-209154.html