BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, while invoking Lord Ram and raising the pitch for a “Ram Rajya” on the one hand, stirred up his backward class identity on the other, even as he mounted a frontal attack on the Congress leadership at a rally in Amethi on Monday.
Mr. Modi, who was winding up his campaign for the fifth phase of elections in UP at Faizabad, was speaking on a stage against the backdrop of the proposed Ram Mandir, prompting the Election Commission to seek a report from the district authorities.
While Mr. Modi avoided reference to Ram Mandir, he made several mentions of Lord Ram in Faizabad, exhorting people to teach the SP, BSP and Congress a lesson for not fulfilling their promises.
With the portrait of Lord Ram and the proposed Ram Mandir as backdrop, he said: “I will fight against corruption, I promise you from the land of Lord Ram.” He even mentioned Mahatma Gandhi to further his point of a “Ram Rajya.”
“When Gandhiji was asked about his idea of an ideal nation, he said there should be a Ram Rajya,” Mr. Modi said.
Tea-seller background
'Taking the battle to the Nehru-Gandhi bastion and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, Amethi, later in the day, Mr. Modi raked up his backward class credentials and background as a tea-seller to hit back at the Congress for its “politics of anger” charge against his party. Mr. Modi said that he did not go to Amethi to indulge in the “politics of revenge ( badla )” but that of “change ( badlav ).”
Referring to the dismissal of senior Congress leader Sitaram Kesri, Mr. Modi said,“He (Mr. Kesri) belonged to a backward class like me. He was insulted and thrown out of the party because of (Congress president) Sonia (Gandhi)ji’s anger. Now tell me who does politics of anger.”
Recounting more instances where the Congress’ top two leaders displayed “politics of anger,” Mr. Modi said that when former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao died, “Soniaji did not allow his funeral in Delhi out of her anger, just like Bahadur Shah Zafar was not allowed to be buried by the British.” Mr. Modi also cited Mr. Gandhi’s “nonsense” remark overruling the ordinance passed by the Cabinet.
In Amethi, where the BJP’s Smriti Irani challenges Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Modi cited his own humble background and accused the Congress of “looting the nation” in the name of the poor. “Initially, the mother-son duo did not take my name. They thought that I was a small person. But now that the whole country is taking my name, they were forced to do so. The Congress must have never thought that a chai-walla would challenge them someday,” he said.
Mr. Modi said that if he loses, he would happily go back to selling tea. Targetting Ms. Gandhi for her remark that Mr. Modi was power hungry, he said people like Ms. Gandhi had left “poor people” like him no option but to ask. “At least we do not loot,” he said.
Congress charge
For his comments on Lord Ram, the Congress lashed out at the BJP, saying that the party had returned to its original agenda of communalism and complained to the EC seeking a ban on Mr. Modi’s campaign in UP as it “raised the threats of communal violence in the State.”
UP Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said the degree of punishment, if any, would be decided on the recommendations of the district authorities. Usage of religious symbols is banned during election campaigns.
Lallu Singh, the BJP’s candidate in Faizabad which goes to the polls on May 7, is an accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
