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Fresh from clean chit, Narendra Modi talks development

It was Vajpayee who understood the aspirations and dreams of the people of Jharkhand, Modi said.

In his first public rally after getting a clean chit in the 2002 Gujarat riots conspiracy case from an Ahmedabad court, BJP?s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today vowed to convert the 2014 Lok Sabha elections into a popular movement against the ?misgovernance? of the Congress.

?The 2014 elections is going to be a popular movement against the misgovernance and in favour of good governance. We will move ahead with development,? he told the impressive gathering at the rally here.

While Modi sold his vision for development, preferring to keep silent on the court verdict, BJP president Rajnath Singh highlighted the clean chit to Modi, asserting that he will emerge ?stronger? than ever.

?We projected Narendra Modi as our prime ministerial candidate. He was being labelled as communal for the only riots that happened in 12 years of his rule. There was delay, but gods have delivered justice in his favour. An Ahmedabad court has given clean chit to him,? Singh said, warning the Congress for falsely implicating the Gujarat chief minister.

?They (Congress) has now resorted to a fresh trick accusing Narendra Modi of snooping. Modi has constituted an inquiry commission, but the Central government has set up a parallel commission. The more you (Congress) try to conspire against him, Narendra Modi will emerge stronger,? the BJP president said.

Other senior BJP leaders projected Modi as the strongman the country needs. Raising the issue of US visa denial to Modi, former union minister Yashwant Sinha said, ?Either Barack Obama come here to personally hand over US visa to him, otherwise we (BJP) will cancel his visa to India.?

Former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda attacked the Congress for being soft on Pakistan. ?The situation has become such that Indian soldiers are being beheaded at the border. When Narendra Modi becomes the PM, the country will retaliate by beheading 100 (Pakistani soldiers) for each of our (soldier) beheaded to restore Indian pride,? he said.

Modi, on the other hand, dwelt at length about the alleged short-changing of the people in natural resource rich Jharkhand by the Congress. With a poster of Parliament building as the backdrop on the stage ? unlike the Red Fort that the BJP used at two previous rallies, Modi promised that when BJP comes to power at the Centre, it would extend all necessary help to Jharkhand to eradicate poverty and create employment to halt migration of youth to other places.

Blaming the Congress for the ills plaguing the state and the country, Modi yet again ridiculed his favourite whipping boy ? Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi ? for his recent directive to Congress chief ministers to control price rise. He said Rahul?s ?akaashvani? was meant to befool the people.

?You must have heard about akaashvani in our old scriptures. It is being replayed these days. Those who are actually responsible for the current plight have turned into making akaashvani. They hide after their akaashvani. The akaashvani in scriptures used to force people into introspection, but this akaashvani demonstrates their dishonesty,? Modi said, without naming Rahul.

He said that as the chairman of group of chief ministers constituted by the Prime Minister, he had given suggestion to curb price rise through specific measures more than two years ago. ?But the government did not take any action on those suggestions,? Modi said, virtually dimissing Rahul?s directive to the Congress CMs as a gimmick.

In a departure from his usual Vande Mataram sloganeering at the end of his rallies, Modi, however, chose to skip the ritual this time, perhaps with the subdued response from the crowd playing on his mind.

In his address, Rajnath Singh projected Modi as the man to whom former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had passed on the ?magic wand? to control prices.

?The Prime Minister laments that he has no magic wand to control prices. But Vajpayee had kept prices under control during his six-year rule. Vajpayee has passed on that magic wand to our future prime minister Narendra Modi to contain inflation,? Singh said.

While Modi did not speak about the challenge of Naxalism in the state, Singh appealed to ?Naxal brothers? to shun bullets and take up ballot for the change they want.

Both Singh and Modi appealed to the gathering to rally behind the BJP so that the party makes a clean sweep of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

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First published on: 29-12-2013 at 23:04 IST
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