Hitting out at the Gandhi family BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said that ‘one family’ was responsible for poverty in this country and as polls were nearing, the UPA government had started speaking about the welfare of poor.
Modi did not name Gandhi but said members of this family go to poor’s hut to know what poverty is whereas we are born in a poor family’s old tea and know what hunger pangs are.
Addressing a mammoth ‘Vijay Shankhnaad Rally’ in Varanasi he said that there had never been such an atmosphere in the country before an election. ‘Political parties are more active when elections are around the corner and this is natural. But for the first time the people are eager, aggressive to overturn the government in Delhi,’ he said while adding that 2014 elections will not be fought by political parties, it will be the people’s fight – each and every voter will contest in the 2014 polls.
‘I have come from the land of Somnath to seek the blessings of Vishwanath. For us the River Ganga is our mother, it isn’t a stream of water but it is where our culture flows,’ Modi said.
Blaming the Centre as well as the state government for failing to clean the holy Ganga, he said to clean up the river, there have been innumerable committees and funds allocated – but it seems all has been washed away in the river. ‘Other than holding three meetings in 5 years, the government has done no work on cleaning up the Ganges. From the time Rajiv Gandhi was in power, they have sought votes in the name of Ganga and efforts to clean it up,’ he said.
‘Jo Ganga nahin sambhal sakte, woh desh ko kya sambhalenge?’, he asked.
The Gujarat chief minister said for cleaning up the Ganga, we need a clean-up in Delhi and Lucknow. ‘Till these people are at the helm of affairs, there is no possibility of the river being cleaned up,’ he said.
Elated with the performance of the BJP in the just concluded assembly elections in five states Modi said, ‘People of this country are just not able to stand this Congress led central government any more. They have already started electing BJP to power and removing Congress from power. I can say with confidence that people will uproot the Congress government.’
‘We need a Congress-mukt (Congress-free) India, only then we can eradicate poverty and unemployment,’ he said.
Replying to the Congress and other political parties asking him what has done or what will he do, Modi said , ‘I don’t just make claims, I deliver.’
‘Whoever has such questions, I request them to come to Gujarat for one day - and stand on the banks of the Sabarmati - the river which had become a nullah 10 years ago and see what has become of it today,’ he further claimed.
He alleged that Congress calls us robbers and thieves. ‘Yes we are thieves. We have stolen the sleep of the Congress.’
Appreciating the people of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP PM candidate said, ‘your ancestors helped create ‘Ram rajya’ in state. It is in the DNA of everyone in UP.’
‘We assisted the power loom sector in Gujarat. I want to assure that we can eradicate poverty. People ask me what is your vision and this is my vision. What we did in Surat can be replicated in Varanasi. The Banarasi sari can save the economy of the country.