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Narendra Modi spoke from the ramparts of the 'Red Fort'. But neither as the country's prime minister nor from the original fort in New Delhi.
The Chhattisgarh government had erected a special stage for Gujarat Chief Minister Modi in Ambikapur that resembled the historic Red Fort of New Delhi. The occasion was the conclusion of a 29-day Vikas Yatra of Chief Minister Raman Singh, rolled out to showcase the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s government's achievements ahead of the November polls.
Comparing the doctor title of Manmohan Singh with Raman Singh's, Modi said both were doctors. "The one in Chhattisgarh is the doctor of people while the one in New Delhi is the doctor of money," Modi said, adding the people in Chhattisgarh were living better but the money was striving for life and was in the hospital.
He added that those occupying high offices in the Union government had shunned their responsibilities. "The person who does not know what was the requirement of a poor person was asserting how much money he would require to buy a day's meal. The UPA government is throwing acid on poor people's wounds."
Lashing at the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, projected as his opponent, Modi said his grandmother Indira Gandhi would be pained to see her grandson's activities. "Rahul claims poverty is a state of mind, while his grandmother fought for poverty eradication with the popular slogan Gareebi Hatao (eliminate poverty)."
Referring to the state reorganisation process, he said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, carved out Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, respectively, without any unrest. Both the parent and the new state celebrated the bifurcation. "But when the Telangana state was announced, the government had to impose a curfew."
BJP president Rajnath Singh also spoke on the occasion and said the BJP government was not only going to make a hat-trick in the state but would hit four and six. However, the highlight of the show was the specially built 'Red Fort', prepared by tent-house experts from Raipur. Conventionally, the prime minister addresses the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day. Modi, addressing people from a mock Red Fort, hogged the headlines.
Congress quipped on the event and commented that Modi would be confined to such an artificial 'Red Fort'. "Let Modi unfurl the tricolour and speak from the ramparts of such Lal Kilas only," Congress General-Secretary Digvijay Singh said.
The BJP justified Modi addressing from the special stage. "The people of Chhattisgarh want Narendra Modi to speak from the Red Fort and hence the show in the state has been its symbol," a spokesperson said.
