Modi uses ordinance fiasco to turn the tables on Manmohan

Update: 2013-11-19 00:00 GMT
‘The dignity of Prime Minister’s post was shattered. Who did it? Who has insulted the entire cabinet? Who has humiliated the entire Parliament. The party of which you are so proud of and that party which has made you sit on the Prime Minister’s chair, that party’s vice-president had the audacity of calling your decision nonsense,’ Modi said at an election rally in Chhattarpur.

Modi was referring to the matter of the ordinance, now revoked, which was cleared by the union cabinet with an intention to nullify a Supreme Court order prescribing immediate disqualification of an MLA or MP if convicted in a court of law.

Gandhi had termed the ordinance ‘complete nonsense’, saying it should be ‘torn up and thrown away’.
‘No BJP member has committed the sin or caused the humiliation that he (Gandhi) did by tearing up the paper of a decision which was taken democratically’, he added.

‘Those with whose blessing you are occupying the (prime minister’s) chair have conspired to show you down in front of billions of people,’ Modi said.

Modi, the BJP prime ministerial candidate, said Gandhi’s comments were like a ‘slap on the (Prime Minister’s) face’ while he had been on a USA visit.

‘Tell us prime minister, have we done this? If you cannot say anything against them, then don’t, but do not blame us for this,’ Modi said.

Modi further alleged that ‘Shahzade’ (Gandhi) had lowered the dignity of democratic institutions.
‘Recently, he (Gandhi) said BJP is chor (thief)... The country knows that when the last Parliament session was on, there were slogans of ‘Chor, Chor’... You also asked if the opposition in any other country calls its Prime Minister Chor?’ Modi said.

Gandhi had last week had dubbed BJP a ‘party of thieves’ during an election rally in Chhattisgarh and accused it of ‘looting natural resources’ in that state.

‘Is this kind of behaviour right? If you say we are thieves, then we accept this charge... We have committed theft. We have stolen Congress’s sleep,’ he said.

The BJP leader said that if Singh, Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted to fight BJP, they should do so on developmental issues.

He warned Congress against using government power and false propaganda in any such contest, saying it cannot suppress BJP with those tactics.

Modi also targeted Congress general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh, saying he ‘spoke too much’.

‘He (Digvijay) has ruled this state for a long time. He is into a new industry these days – he is the chairman of the Lie Manufacturing Factory. Even when he is caught (lying), he does not have any shame,’ Modi said.

Talking about the Chhattisgarh polls, for which, too, he has campaigned, Modi alleged that Congress had become so frustrated there, it was shying away from announcing its chief ministerial candidate.

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