Sonia is shielding Rahul from poll defeat, says Modi

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi accused Rahul Gandhi of running away from electoral defeat and quoted 15 universal prayers from the Puranas, Upanishads, Manusmriti and popular religious chants to counter the Congress’s claim of being the sole repository of a superior idea of India.

Punching holes in the Congress’s strategy to shield Rahul Gandhi by refusing to pit him in the race for the Prime Minister and projecting the Congress as representative of a more inclusive, secular vision, Modi presented “My Idea of India” to the BJP national council that concluded its two-day-long strategy session in the Capital on Sunday.

Citing Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar’s disparaging comments about his humble beginnings as a tea vendor as illustrative of the Congress’s elitism and contempt for the poor, Modi joined the ranks of the aam admi by terming the general elections as a battle between “ chaiwallahs (tea vendors) and feudal lords”.

The Gujarat Chief Minister began his speech, one hour-and-forty five-minutes long, by arguing that the logic behind the Congress not projecting Rahul Gandhi as PM is that his mother, Sonia Gandhi wants to shield him from the inevitable defeat in the general elections. “Besides the obvious political reasons, one must understand that there is a human concern – that of a mother. When you’re staring at defeat, do you expect a mother to sacrifice her son? ‘No’ she said, ‘save my son’. And the Congress, naturally, obliged,” Modi said.

“Arun Jaitley tells me that the Congress delegates came to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session hoping to get a PM candidate but went back with three gas cylinders. And the excuse they gave for not projecting a PM was that this is democratic tradition. They even quoted the Constitution. I’d like to ask the Congress what happened to democracy in 1947 when against the wishes of the entire party, Sardar Patel was not made PM?

“What happened after October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated – was the Congress Legislature Party convened to elect Rajiv Gandhi as PM? Where are the minutes, agenda if such a meeting ever took place? And, in 2004, was it the wish of the Congress legislators to elect Manmohan Singh? Was he not nominated by Sonia Gandhi?” he asked. Modi attacked Rahul Gandhi’s description of the Congress as a “thought, an idea of India”.

“We hear people talk a lot about idea of India. The idea of India is not anybody’s private property. I too can have an idea of India. It is not restricted to one person and party. I’ll present my idea of India to you,” he said.

Before he spoke, the national council had passed a political resolution introduced by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj that listed almost all the points that Modi repeated with much fervour.

He counted promotion of “Brand India” with “Five Ts – Talent, Tradition, Tourism, Trade” as part of his vision statement that listed good governance, infrastructure renewal, a golden railway quadrilateral, a national optical fibre network, new ports and second generation push to highway construction, ensuring women’s safety and building of world class cities as part of urban renewal.