Even as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi tried to woo women in New Delhi through Chai pe charcha on Saturday, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal accused him with spreading “falsehoods” about the Gujarat model of development and challenged him to a dialogue anywhere, anytime.
“Why is Modi so scared of me?” Kejriwal asked, amid applause.
At a public meeting here this evening, he appealed to the people to make Gujarat free from Modi and BJP. Some slogan-shouting BJP supporters threw stones at him and police had to cane-charge to disperse them. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal visited Gandhi Ashram and spun some yarn there.
In the afternoon, his four-hour-long rally through 10 km in nine police station areas of the crowded parts of Ahmedabad received a rousing welcome at many places, including Maninagar, represented by Modi in the Vidhan Sabha.
Massive rally As he waved to the curious crowds lined up on both sides of the roads, many responded enthusiastically. In particular, Muslim women garlanded him at many places near Amraiwadi.
Winding up his four-day visit to “assess” Modi’s claims, the former Delhi Chief Minister told an impressive gathering in Bapunagar that the development claim in Gujarat was a hoax.
“It actually means acquisition of land from farmers, closing down SMEs and promoting big industries,” he said, and cited the alleged land purchase by BJP MLA Shankar Choudhary at Charanka on the cheap, which was later acquired by the government for selling to those who set up units at Solar Park. Accusing a section of the media with promoting Modi as PM-material, Kejriwal said his party’s volunteers had uncovered facts about his development claims.
“There is no difference between Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Modi; the former is a property dealer for Robert Vadra, and the latter for the Ambanis, Adanis and the Tatas,” Kejariwal said.
Reiterating the issues he raised in the 16-point memorandum he unsuccessfully tried to submit to Modi on Friday, Kejriwal said while farming subsidies had been withdrawn, the Tatas were given subsidies worth ₹29,000 crore for their Nano project. “Now, Modi works only for big industries as 60,000 SMEs closed down in 10 years in Gujarat.”
Claiming that RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani was close to both Modi and Rahul Gandhi, the AAP leader said if Modi became the PM, he would anoint his Cabinet Minister Saurabh Patel, son-in-law of the Ambani family, as his successor.
“It was during the Modi regime that the Adanis’ turnover increased from ₹3,000 crore to ₹47,000 crore between 2001 and 2013,” Kejariwal said.
“But I have little hope that Modi will reply to my questions. He just alights from helicopters, delivers speeches and flies back. He does not engage in a dialogue with anybody,” he said.