Gandhinagar
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi took on the ruling establishment in Gujarat accusing chief minister Narendra Modi of practicing politics of anger and throttling the grievance redressal mechanism even as campaigning for the second phase of polling for the remaining 95 of the total 182 seats in the state ended here on Saturday. Voting is slated for December 17 and the results will be out on December 20.
While 87 seats of Saurashtra, South Gujarat and four seats of Ahmedabad district figured in the first phase of polling held on December 13, the second phase on Monday covers 95 seats of north Gujarat and central Gujarat involving a population of 3,80,77,454 with 820 candidates in the fray.
Political parties seeking to make the most of the last day hurled everything into the campaigning. If Rahul Gandhi took the Modi government apart on its acts of omission and commission, the Gujarat chief minister hit back targeting the UPA government on its poor track record. Modi addressed election meetings in five districts on Saturday with party leader Arun Jaitley, TV star Smriti Irani and filmstar Paresh Raval complementing the ruling party’s poll campaign. For the Congress, union minister Manish Tewari spoke in Vadodara while Rahul Gandhi addressed a poll meeting in Bhuj, Kutch.
Seeking to illustrate the contrast Rahul praised UP and Bihar for better implementation of Right To Information Act than Gujarat.
Pointing out that 14,000 RTI applications remained pending in Gujarat he said that the Act has proved effective in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but not here. ”Just because one man does not want it, Gujarat has been without a Lokayukta for long,” he added.
The AICC general secretary accused Modi of authoritarianism and of practicing the politics of anger.” Anger only blinds one to his own faults and to the needs of the people,” he added.
“My father was killed. My grandmother was killed. Two out of total four most important persons in my life were taken away by terrorists. I was angry. But I kept that anger aside. Anger had made me blind. I could see things clearly only when I put that anger aside.”
He continued, "The problem here is that the person who runs Gujarat is possessed by anger. Anger cannot take this state further. Only love can take this state ahead. Your history is history of love," he added
Gandhi raised the issue of unavailability of water and allotment of land to industries. "Do you get Narmada water? The land has been given away to industries and fishermen are suffering''.
Speaking in Vadodara, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari alleged that Modi is playing “Political football” with the sensitive international issues like Sir Creek. “Modi is seeking to divert attention from crony capitalism practiced by his government by raising issues like Sir Creek. Why was he silent in 2004, when NDA Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee discussed the issue with the then President of Pakistan Parvez Musharraf,” he added.
Tewari asked why Modi remained silent on Sir Creek for the last eight years and only woke up to it ahead of the second phase of polling which will cover six seats of Kutch District”
