Coming down heavily on the Congress, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Monday accused the party of hiding itself in the “secularism bunker” to avoid being accountable to the people for their performance.
Addressing a rally at MMRDA ground in Mumbai, Modi said, “They hide under the bunker of secularism to save their skin. People are fed up with this worn-out record (secularism),” he said.
Beginning his speech in Marathi, Modi remembered Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray on the occasion saying, “We have to ensure that we should make him happy wherever he is.”
Stating that railways were the lifeline of Mumbai, Modi asked, “Why can’t we have a university of railways in the country, where training can be imparted for upgradation of the railways,” he asked.
Earlier in the day, in his address at three back-to-back public meetings in Etah, Firozabad and Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, he bamed the government of ‘maa-beta’ at the Centre and ‘baap-beta’ in the state of fooling people in the name of development.
In Mathura, he promised to restore the glory of the Yamuna and develop the city as a religious tourism destination. Sharing the dias with actor-turned-politician Hema Malini, he said, “It will be an unprecedented defeat for the Congress this time. People are angry with ‘sarkar of maa-beta’ at the centre and that of ‘baap-beta’ in the state,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}In Mathura, he promised to restore the glory of the Yamuna and develop the city as a religious tourism destination. Sharing the dias with actor-turned-politician Hema Malini, he said, “It will be an unprecedented defeat for the Congress this time. People are angry with ‘sarkar of maa-beta’ at the centre and that of ‘baap-beta’ in the state,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Referring to the way in which Mecca, Medina and and Jerusalem had grown as destinations visited by numerous devotees, he asked: “Why are we not able to develop Mathura and Vrindavan as tourist destinations?” He cited the example of Dwarka, a religious spot developed in Gujarat.
Earlier, in Etah, he urged voters to vote against the Congress, making it clear that UP was important for him to shore up the party’s tally in the Lok Sabha.