BJP’S prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday (November 10) hit back at the prime minister, saying the ruling Congress committed the “sin” of Partition and eulogised only the Nehru-Gandhi family while neglecting heroes of the freedom struggle.
Modi trained his guns on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had on Saturday (November 9) said in Raipur that on many occasions, “over-excited BJP leaders change history and geography of the country”.
Singh’s remarks were perceived as being directed at Modi.
“Mr Prime Minister, I am aware that it is not in your hands what you should say or not say. But the country wants to know who changed the geography of India. The village in which you were born was a part of Hindustan. Today it is not. Who broke this country into pieces?”
Modi made the remarks while inaugurating a multi-specialty hospital managed by a Muslim trust in Balassinor in Kheda district, about 100 kilometres from Ahmedabad.
Singh was born on September 26, 1932 in Gah, a remote village, now in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Modi said that “Congress committed the sin of dividing India into two parts”.
“You say we are changing the geography. Every so often China creates problems on our borders. It has captured hundreds of square kilometres of our territory. Who changed this geography? It was changed during Congress rule.”
Taking the prime minister to task for his speech in Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh, Modi said it would have been better if the Dr Singh had spoken about ways to tackle price rise and corruption.
During his address, Singh had also said that the “people of Chhattisgarh and India are aware that parties that talk big are not capable of coming to power…we should alert the people about parties which have communal ideology but are talking about secularism to mislead people”.
Modi said that he fully agreed with PM when he said that those who talk big cannot achieve success.
“I fully agree with you. You cannot achieve success with big talks and the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections is an example. Big talkers were rejected,” Modi said, referring to BJP’s victory in last year’s assembly polls.
Modi also alleged that the Centre wants to change the route of the Sabarmati-Dandi heritage road that is to be constructed to mark the Salt Satyagraha undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi.
