Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s information on Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence contacting Muslim youth in the aftermath of the Muzaffarnagar riots was based on feedback from a Rajasthan police officer.
“I have come to know that a police officer of Rajasthan, who wants to contest [Assembly] elections on Congress ticket, gave this information to him and he in turn used it in his address,” said Mr. Modi. Moreover, the “prince feels good in talking about family serials in his speeches and thinks it would help his party.”
Addressing a public rally in Udaipur, Mr. Modi reiterated that the ruling Congress was misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation for targeting its political adversaries, but the party did not have the courage to put the Prime Minister’s role in the coal block allocation case under the scanner..
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate accused the CBI of adopting double standards. It had frozen into silence ever since the role of the Prime Minister’s Office came into question after the former Coal Secretary made direct allegations. “Just imagine. Had such allegations been levelled against Vasundhara Raje, Narendra Modi, Shivraj Singh or Raman Singh, the CBI would have thrown us behind bars within minutes,” he said.
Mr. Modi said the CBI was targeting senior BJP leader in Rajasthan Gulab Chand Kataria in a fake encounter case because it was after Ms. Raje as the polls were approaching. “But when it comes to the Prime Minister, it is stunned into silence as if it has seen a snake.”
Mr. Modi lashed out at Congress leaders and blamed the ruling party for the rising inflation, spiralling onion prices, corruption and communal violence in different parts of the country. He said he would expose all “wrongdoings” of the UPA regime in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Calling upon people in the tribal-dominated belt in southern Rajasthan to “let the lotus bloom” in the desert State, he said even the Centre did not have faith in the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government. The State government had failed to control communal incidents, for which the Minorities Commission and even the Supreme Court snubbed it, he said.
Mr. Modi said Mr. Gandhi visited Gopalgarh after the communal violence in 2011 without informing the State Congress leadership. “Can you vote for the government in which even the ‘Shahzada’ [prince] has no trust,” he asked, and pointed out that even the Governor, who was from the Congress, had scolded the State government for not implementing tribal welfare schemes.
Correction
In the third paragraph of “Rajasthan cop gave Rahul ISI info: Modi” (Oct. 27, 2013) there was a reference to the Central Bureau of Information. It should have been Central Bureau of Investigation. It was an editing error.
