New Delhi: Describing Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi as a "headache" for BJP and NDA, the Congress
today claimed that he had reinforced his image of "great
intolerance" by enacting the "drama of fast".
"Modi is a headache for the BJP and the NDA. It does
not affect the UPA. We do not see it from that angle. We see
the fast undertaken by him as the biggest political hypocrisy
of the decade," AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told
reporters.
He said Modi`s actions were not surprising as the
opposition party was witnessing a "race for supremacy".
In an obvious dig at BJP veteran LK Advani, Dwivedi
said those people who cannot do their politics without support
from the Gujarat Chief Minister will have to blow Modi`s
trumpet.
He said it was strange that a person against whom people
have complaints of injustice should undertake such a fast when
it is observed by those who suffer injustice.
Referring to the "fissures" in the NDA, Dwivedi, who is
the AICC Media Department chief, asked, "Where is NDA if the
JD-U and Shiv Sena are not with the fast?"
Suggesting that all is not well in the BJP over Modi`s
projection, he said, "Ask those in that party who have welcome
Modi`s fast? How they are feeling inside.
"Be it the fast or the Rathyatra, it is all about the
politics to gain control of the party.
"Nowadays, everyone in the BJP is trying to establish
one`s supremacy, RSS is doing it as an organisation while all
others are doing it in their personal capacity, be it Advani`s
Rathyatra or the BJP President Nitin Gadkari`s antics.
"If under these circumstances, Modi was playing the
drama of fast what is surprising about it? It is just the
beginning. Let us see how things take shape by 2014," when the
Parliament elections are scheduled, he said.
Asked whether Congress was `comfortable` with Modi`s
projection as prime ministerial candidate as it would lead to
political polarisation on secular and communal lines, Dwivedi
said, "Not at all.
"We have always opposed political people like Narendra
Modi who do not accept the all inclusive social structure of
society. The emergence of such leaders is not a good augury
and there is no question of being happy about it," he said.
Describing Modi`s talk of communal amity as a "open
fraud with the people," the Congress leader said that nobody
will accept that he can stand against the politics of caste
and communalism.
"As far as Modi`s politics is concerned, it is BJP`s
problem. As BJP was helpless in Karnataka, the same holds true
for it in Gujarat in some matters," he said.
He said that one of the causes for undertaking a fast is
self-purification, but the Gujarat Chief Minister did not say
that he urgently required it.
Party spokesperson Renuka Choudhary said that Modi
ended up exposing himself by the fast which revealed that he
was "a man of great intolerance and arrogance".
She said that the way things took shape, "Modi ended up
reinforcing the same image of himself that he wanted to shed".
Choudhary claimed that the counter fast undertaken by
Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela showed to the people that
an alternative was available.
A senior party leader, who did not want to be identified,
claimed that Modi had upset Advani`s yatra and hurt BJP`s
plans.
PTI
