The former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shankarsinh Waghela, and State president of the Congress Arjun Modhvadia on Tuesday ended their 74 hours of counter-fast with the claim that their exercise had “exposed” Chief Minister Narendra Modi's “marketing of fasting.”
The two Congress leaders, who launched the counter-fast outside the Sabarmati Ashram on Saturday morning an hour before Mr Modi launched his “Sadbhavana Mission” with three-day fasting, ended it at 10 a.m. by accepting juice from two Dalit girls. AICC in-charge of Gujarat affairs Mohan Prakash was the only Central leader of the party present.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Waghela and other party leaders said the Congress could have requested party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come here for their blessings on the occasion, “but we did not want to make a show of fasting like Mr. Modi” by bringing leaders by special jet planes and general public by luxury buses at the cost of the State exchequer.
Mr. Waghela regretted that Mahatma Gandhi's “sacred weapon of fasting,” which the ‘Father of the Nation' used to get freedom from the British rule, was “abused and denigrated” by Mr. Modi. “The Chief Minister has made a mockery of the tool to show to the world his hypocritical designs.”
Gujarat began its journey of progress ever since it was formed in 1960, ages before Mr. Modi took over. But the Bharatiya Janata Party was claiming that the State was like a barren jungle before 2001 and everything started happening only after Mr. Modi took over. He pointed out that major public sector as well as private sectors units such as refineries, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and IFFCO, which immensely contributed in Gujarat's growth were all set up during the Congress regime. The State's growth rate earlier was about 16 per cent, which actually declined during the Modi regime, Mr. Waghela said.
