'Don’t forget Godhra'

The Congress took a potshot at the captains of Indian industry and urged that before handing out testimonials to him, they should remember that the entire edifice of the Modi regime “rests on the dead body of innocent people”.

The Congress took a potshot at the captains of Indian industry, some of whom have hailed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a future prime minister, and urged that before handing out testimonials to him, they should remember that the entire edifice of the Modi regime “rests on the dead body of innocent people”.

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Party spokesman Manish Tewari drew a parallel with industrialists in Germany who had gravitated towards Hitler and praised his Nazi regime. “In 1933, German capitalists were attracted to a fascist dictator... I do not want to go into the consequences of the episode on Germany and the rest of the world... His (Modi’s) entire edifice rests on the dead body of innocent people,” he said.

Advising industrialists to “realize the realities of Gujarat” before giving a character certificate to Modi, Tewari doled out statistics to allege the BJP regime had failed Gujarat, which has slipped on various economic indices. Alleging “‘Vibrant Gujarat’ is a myth”, he rubbished Modi’s claims that 63 per cent of MoUs signed during the 2003, 2005 and 2007 summits had been executed and that MoUs worth Rs 12,000 lakh crore had been signed that would create 25 lakh jobs.

“The way Satyam fudged accounts, Gujarat is doing the same,” he alleged.