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UP Polls: Modi targets Congress, SP; accuses them of being soft on terror
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, accusing them of being soft on terrorists
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, accusing them of being soft on terrorists. He cautioned the people to be wary of such leaders.
“The SP and Congress leaders’ attitude has been dangerous. These people referred to terrorists like Osama (bin Laden) as “Osamaji” and cried over the elimination of terrorists in the Batla House encounter,” Modi said.
The “Osamaji” reference was over the remark made for the slain terrorist by Congress leader Digvijay Singh in May 2011 while the reference to Batla House encounter was over Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s remarks made during an election rally in Azamgarh in 2012 wherein he had said that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had wept on being shown photographs of the Batla House encounter.
Both Singh and Khurshid had, subsequently, said their remarks were quoted out of context but on Sunday, Modi used them to build a case about the Congress and SP being soft on terror.
“Beware of such political parties who, due to their own vested interests, risk the country and compromise with national security,” Modi said in his public rally in Hardoi.
While terrorism was the focus of Modi in Hardoi, at his other rally in Unnao, he fired another salvo at the SP chief.
“Imagine the plight of a party, whose chief had to request the same person to bail him out on his seat, whom he had insulted on way to capturing the party,” Modi said in Unnao.
This was a veiled attack on Akhilesh, for whom his father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav had campaigned in Karhal, in Mainpuri, from where Akhilesh is contesting.
“Serial blasts had rocked Ahmedabad when I was chief minister of Gujarat. I can’t forget that day. As those who lost their family members wailed, I had taken a pledge on the blood-soaked soil that my government would punish the perpetrators of this dastardly act, even if it meant tracing them out from netherworld,” Modi said in Hardoi.
On February 18, a special court in Ahmedabad had handed out death penalty to 38 members of terrorist outfit Indian Mujahideen in the 2008 serial blasts case. Eleven others were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“The Gujarat bomb blasts took place twice – first simultaneous blasts took place at 50 to 60 places. Then when the injured from these blasts were brought to hospital, another bomb blast rocked the hospital, killing more. Initially all the bombs were placed on a cycle, the Samajwadi Party election symbol. I wonder why they chose the cycle for placing the bombs,” Modi said.
“In 2007, a terrorist attack was carried out in Gorakhpur. In 2013, the SP government sought to withdraw the case against a terrorist but the court turned down the SP move. Later, he was convicted and sentenced for 20 years in jail. Similarly, serial court blasts rocked Lucknow and Ayodhya. In 2013, the SP government again sought to withdraw the case against the terrorists but later courts sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. In all, in 14 cases, all related to terror attacks in UP, the SP government sought to withdraw cases against the terrorists,” Modi said.
“These people insult the Indian army, used derogatory words for police personnel. Our government on the other hand built the National War Memorial and National Police Memorial. We respect martyrs. I request the media to raise these issues before the masses,” Modi said while accusing rival parties of engaging in “politics of appeasement” and said people of the state would give them a befitting answer on March 10, when results of the seven-phased UP polls would be known.
He also said the poor were saying that they won’t “ditch Modi” as they have consumed the “namak (salt)” provided by the BJP government as part of free ration.
At various places, ‘namak’ is linked to loyalty – a point Modi played on to remind the masses about his government’s free ration scheme for the poor.
