A day after Narendra Modi ended his 72-hour fast in Ahmedabad, the Congress lashed out at the Gujarat chief minister and his BJP, describing the Sadbhavana Mission for peace as the “greatest farce” in recent Indian political history.
Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi not just described Modi as a “hypocrite”, but claimed that the 62-year-old leader’s fast was a “headache for the BJP and not for the UPA (that rules the Centre)”.
AICC functionary B K Hariprasad went so far as to suggest that the BJP followed an unusual yardstick for projecting its prime ministerial candidates: ones have been involved in massacre of religious minorities. This, he claimed, was “evident” in L K Advani (accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case) in 2009 and now Narendra Modi (blamed for patronising the 2002 post-Godhra riots).
Accusing Modi of tearing apart the country’s age-old inclusive nature and social fabric, the Congress minced no words in stating that the CM’s fast was a “political drama” aimed at gaining “supremacy and self-glorification” with the 2014 general elections in mind.
Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said Modi has “damaged himself” by his fast. “If he objects to wearing a Muslim skull-cap, then what sadbhavna is he talking of?”
Inadvertently, according to the Congress, Modi has exposed himself as being the anti-thesis of what he has been espousing.
Overall, the Congress, which had been confused and sporadic in its reaction to Modi’s media-hogging three-day Sadbhavana Mission for peace, appeared to have finally got its act together.
Dwivedi, also chief of the Congress’s media cell, alleged that no enlightened individual could believe that Modi has risen above communalism. “His fast is a farce imposed on the people.”
About the BJP’s top brass having flocked to Ahmedabad to support Modi, Dwivedi said, “They had earlier this year been compelled to act in a similar way Karnataka (to support B S Yeddyurappa as CM). Now, they have been compelled to support Modi. Without Modi, certain people in the BJP have no political identity. So, they were forced to eulogise him.”
Ridiculing Modi’s “self-glorification” of being inclusive and the engine for Gujarat’s development, Hariprasad said, “His communal face stood exposed when he did not meet the 2002 riot victims who came to meet him. As for development, he is shining on borrowed feathers as Gujaratis have always been the most enterprising in the country. It wasn’t a sadbhavna fast but a durbhavna one with an eye on the votebank.”
