Modi bombards Congress government in Delhi election campaign

Narendra Modi’s 8 pm, Janmashtami Park rally in Kalkaji was one of the most exciting political rallies during assembly election campaign in Delhi. Modi also addressed rallies across the city East of Kailash, Madhu Vihar and Krishna Nagar that attracted oceans of people.

On Tuesday when BJP launched it’s star campaigner Narendra Modi in Delhi election campaign, The Traffic police in Delhi was so frightened that fearing a traffic trouble it denied Modi to organize a rally at RK Puram and even a road show in Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s constituency.

While BJP alleged that Traffic Police denied permission under political pressure, a senior police official clarified that according to the Election Commission norms, one cannot block main roads and disrupt traffic in the process. Modi’s rally could halt the traffic and therefore a permission was denied.

Modi in his rallies attacked the Congress governments — both in Delhi and at the Centre — on every issue: from price rise, to the party’s “weak” position vis-à-vis the recent spate of terror attacks in the country.

Taking the attack to the Sheila Dikshit government, Modi said, “Whenever I watch TV, Delhi is always in the news. For crime taking place in the city. Neither your life nor your job is safe in this city,” he said.

The Congress, he added, had aged. “The party is 125 years old and needs to go now. They have been ruling Delhi for the past 10 years and are in power at the Centre too. But what has Delhi got? So many people are dying in road accidents, women are being raped and senior citizens murdered. These incidents have become Delhi’s identity and are tarnishing the image of the entire nation,” he said.

He accused Chief Minister Dikshit of “denying permission” for a rally that was to be addressed by him in New Delhi constituency, from where she is contesting. “I was denied permission to hold a rally there. Two months back, I had met Sheila Dikshit at a function and I asked her about the elections in Delhi: she had told me not to come to Delhi for campaigning.

“I never thought she had made the remark seriously. But today I realise why she asked me not to come to Delhi. She was serious. It’s really surprising. Does democracy run like this”? ”

Targetting the “weak” government at the Centre, he said the government has different standards for different states in countering terrorism. “In Gujarat, when terrorists were caught I allowed joint interrogation with other states,” he said, “but when I asked for interrogation of the people caught in the Malegaon blasts, I was denied the same permission.

“In my state, we were not allowed to tape phone calls, record videos or keep them (suspects) in remand for more than 14 days. But for the Malegaon case, every such thing is being allowed. Why do two states have two different laws to deal with terrorism? This shows there is something wrong with the investigations.”

He said he had pledged to remove all traces of terrorism from Gujarat even as his state has not been permitted to use the MCOCA equivalent law of Maharashtra. “When we arrest an Abu Bashir, we can’t use MCOCA. But when a sadhvi or sainik is arrested for Malegaon, the state is armed with a tougher law for them. Is this fair?” he posed.

Raising the issue of development, he said the Congress just indulges invotebank politics and that’s the reason why people of states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are not letting it come to power though they were once Congress strongholds.

Calling Manmohan Singh a “puppet PM”, he said his own party workers don’t recognise him. “I once heard Singh say that watching the mother of a terrorist weep on TV news gave him sleepless nights. How is it then that he kept mum when so many innocent people died in the Delhi blasts?

Referring to Shivraj Patil changing three suits on the day of the serial blasts in Delhi, Modi said the Home Minister was doing a “fashion parade when people were suffering”. Reiterating his point that he had warned the Centre about the attacks, Modi said, “I informed the Prime Minister and the Home Minister when I met them that the terrorist arrested in the Ahmedabad blast had said during their interrogation that Delhi is in the hit list. But even this did not move to Centre to action.”

“If you give BJP a chance in Delhi, it will become the pride of the country that’s my promise. The development in Gujarat has been the talk of the country and we were able to achieve it despite all odds like earthquakes,” said Modi.