Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are among the leaders who sent their good wishes to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on his 63rd birthday on Monday.
However, within hours of his writing on Twitter that he was “extremely thankful” to Dr. Singh for his greetings, Mr. Modi attacked the Prime Minister for “betraying” the people of the country.
“Whose fortunes are you trying to change?” Mr. Modi asked while launching his “Vivekananda Yuva Vikas Yatra” from the temple town of Ambaji.
He said the Prime Minister betrayed youth to whom he had promised jobs and provided none; betrayed the common masses to whom he had promised he would contain inflation but did nothing, and betrayed the women whom he assured that price rise would be controlled and instead helped it rise further.
Dr. Singh’s saving grace, however, came from Gujarat, he said.
“The Congress in its 2004 election manifesto had promised one crore jobs to youth, but the Central data of the last five years showed that of all the total jobs provided, 72 per cent of the jobs were created in Gujarat,” Mr. Modi claimed.
Age limit raised
Mr. Modi began the day, visiting his mother, who stays with his brother in Ahmedabad, and later offered prayers at the Amba Mata temple at Ambaji before launching his “Vikas Yatra” and addressing addressed a youth convention in Rajkot. BJP national president Nitin Gadkari was present at Ambaji and greeted him.
On the occasion, Mr. Modi raised the age limit for State government jobs from 25 to 28, and to 30 in cases where it was 28 now.
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, socially and educationally backward classes and women would enjoy an additional benefit of five years in age limit.
Mr. Modi raised the age limit within minutes of the State Congress announced its poll promise to increase it to 35 for government jobs.
In his usual style of communicating with his audience, Mr. Modi asked the people whether they were happy with the progress Gujarat had achieved in his regime.
As the people responded in the affirmative, Mr. Modi said he himself was not happy. He claimed that he had spent the last decade merely “covering the huge gaps” the Congress regimes had left in developing the State.
“The real development of Gujarat will start from January 1, 2013,” he said.
At the youth convention, where cricketer and BJP leader Navjyot Singh Siddhu was present, Mr. Modi felicitated the Olympic bronze medal winning shooter Gagan Narang, and two cricketers from Gujarat, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja.
Senior BJP leaders including L. K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj sent birthday greetings to Mr. Modi.
