Congress using Indian Mujahideen to stop me: Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial nominee and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance government of conniving with terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen, suspected to have played a key role behind the serial blasts at his Patna rally last month

He was addressing a mammoth rally on the outskirts of Bahraich in north eastern Uttar Pradesh, barely 40 km from the Indo-Nepal border, infamous as a conduit for Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence-orchestrated infiltration.

Modi, who chose to defy intelligence reports about a possible terrorist strike at the rally, told the crowds, “Since the Congress party now knows that they cannot stop Narendra Modi and the BJP, they had let loose organizations like the Indian Mujahideen. But they do not know that I am made of a different mettle.”

He said, “It appears that the next election will be not be fought by the Congress party but by the Indian Mujahideen and the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is also being systematically used as a political tool -- to save the Congress.”

Lambasting the Congress-led UPA government, he went on to ask, “Can there be any place for guns and bombs in a democracy”, while going on to throw the gauntlet at the Congress leadership, “come and fight it out democratically.”

He went on to add, “Apparently, the Congress has become desperate because it failed to defeat Modi in Gujarat -- three times.”

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The vociferous and inimitable leader from Gujarat said, “I often wonder why all those who have been using political power only for their personal gains were only busy targeting me.”

He asked, “Was it their frustration of being aware they were about to be voted out”, while going on to issue a warning “perhaps it is not just that. I feel that they have come to realize that if the BJP government is formed at the Centre, all such people who were responsible for ruining this country will end up in the place they deserve to go for their sins.”

Predicting doom for the Congress, he went on to declare, “Enough is enough. The time has come for them to go. In this 21st century, the nation is not ready to tolerate them any further.”

Without echoing the usual BJP rhetoric of “Muslim appeasement”, Modi chose to make repeated accusations against the Congress and its allies of playing “vote bank politics”.

Alleging that terrorist outfits like Indian Mujahideen were continuing to raise their heads solely because of “vote bank politics” he cited the Patna blast and the innocent lives it took as a glaring example of their unbridled acts.

“Is there any place for bombs and guns in a democracy,” he asked, while assuring the crowds, “if we were to form our government at the Centre, I will eradicate terrorism from this soil.”

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In his unique interactive style, Modi went about raising questions to highlight the frailties of the Congress, to which the crowds responded each time in a loud chorus.

“The congress has ruled the nation for 60 years, tell me what did you get,” he asked.

“Has there been any change in the poverty that the people of this nation have been facing? Has there been any reduction in the unemployment? Has the farmer been getting sufficient water to irrigate his field? And do the poor and sick get basic medicine,” he asked.  

Each time the answer came with a loud “no”, prompting the Gujarat chief minister to add, “And if I ask them to spell out the promises they had made to the people, those sitting at the helm of affairs train their guns at me.”

Modi also made it a point to take on UP’s ruling Samajwadi Party as well as Bahujan Samaj Party that had ruled the state in the past.

Charging them of playing double standards, he said, “Both the SP and the BSP have been hand-in-glove with the Congress party, which has been surviving only on the support of these two parties.”

He felt, “if these two parties wanted, they could have used their clout with the Centre in the larger interest of the state and its people. Instead, they have only been taking personal favours like getting top leaders of both parties a clean chit from the CBI, where their cases were pending.”

He also sought to point out how he alone was not behind the success story in Gujarat. 

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“Whenever my government’s achievements in Gujarat are talked about, my critics say that it was already a prosperous state. I am not denying that but there is lots that has been done in various sectors,” he said, “But take the case of Madhya Pradesh, which was once listed among the ‘BIMARU’ states. That state has witnessed a complete makeover under ten years of the able leadership of BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.”

He said, “I am sure if Gujarat and MP can do it, UP too can do it. But good governance and concern for the common man does not seem to figure in the list of priorities of the young chief minister of this state.”

Hailing UP as a state with “huge potential”, he said, “UP’s youth have often demonstrated their capability of turning soil into gold, and the strength of its numbers can change the fate of the country”, in an obvious appeal for a vote that could help BJP in its hopeful stride to the portals of power in Delhi.

Earlier, while addressing the rally, BJP chief Rajnath Singh also sought to implore upon the people of the state to, “give all the 80 Lok Sabha seats to BJP.”