 "Modi: not just Hi-Fi and Wi-Fi but also safai")
In both Haryana and Maharashtra, Modi took forward his ‘Swachh Bharat’ or ‘Clean India’ campaign. He said the time has come to remove not just political dirt but keep our surroundings clean. “People say it is the era of
Hi-Fi (technology) and Wi-Fi (connectivity) but I say safai (cleanliness) is also important,” said Modi, asking all those who had attended the rally not to leave behind any plastic bottles or wastes.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is going alone in Haryana. Its ally Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress parted ways with the BJP in early September. In Maharashtra, the BJP and Shiv Sena ended their 25-year alliance. The BJP is contesting 256 of the state’s 288 seats, having left the rest for its smaller allies. Both states will witness a four-cornered fight. Haryana and Maharashtra will go to polls on October 15.
Modi didn’t attack erstwhile or potential allies in these states directly. “Would you rather go to Chandigarh to find a solution to your problem or the Tihar jail (in Delhi),” Modi said in Karnal. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala is currently out on bail on health grounds in a corruption case, but has said he would take oath of CM from the Tihar jail. The BJP, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, had prominently raised the issue of alleged illegal land deals that the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana facilitated for Robert Vadra.
Modi said the Hooda government was the “enemy of villages”. In his public rallies, Hooda has claimed that Haryana tops in the per capita income in India.
In Maharashtra, Modi accused the NCP-Congress combine of having presided over the state’s industrial decline. He claimed Maharashtra was 12th in its literacy rate in India, sixth in its efforts to reduce unemployment and 15th in its development rate. The PM stressed how Gujarat was always Maharashtra’s younger sibling; having been carved out of that state but has done economically much better in recent years.
In Karnal, Modi said he wanted to see Haryana where he learnt his political ropes to prosper. “The truth is that the Congress government has imposed four per cent tax on mandis (wholesale markets), with the result that Basmati from Haryana has become non-competitive,” he said.
In Beed, which is also going to witness a Lok Sabha byelection because of Gopinath Munde’s death, Modi said Shivaji didn’t have big generals but emboldened his people to achieve greater deeds. “People ask me about my big vision. But I am a common man, who thinks for the welfare of the common people,” Modi said.
The PM spoke about the need to stop farmer suicides in Maharashtra, the potential of Aurangabad as a tourism destination and his resolve to end corruption. He also talked about decline in diesel and petrol prices and highlighted the fact that 50 million people have opened bank accounts and deposited Rs 3,000 crore through Jan Dhan Yojana.
“Did India’s name resound in the US as it did this time? Why did it happen,” Modi asked the crowd in Beed and Aurangabad. “It wasn’t Modi’s magic or charisma. It was because of the 125 crore people of India who have stood behind me and given a government of full majority,” Modi said.
Meanwhile. Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her rally in Meham in Haryana said the PM was trying to “show off”. Gandhi said: “They are creating such an atmosphere as if nothing has happened in the country since Independence and they will change everyone's fortunes overnight. Has any step been taken to fulfil promises made during the Lok Sabha elections? Has inflation come down? Is the poor man getting food at a cheaper rate? Have the unemployed got jobs? What happened to their promise of getting back the black money from abroad within 100 days of coming to power? Have any steps been taken in this regard? Absolutely not,” she said. The Congress president said empty vessels make the most noise.