Defending and humiliating the prime minister at the same time is a feat achieved by Modi only. He is turning every rough corner for BJP into a new point scoring ally.
Just a day after the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh was discredit by his own party’s vice-president who is half his age, his “would-be” successor and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi came to his defence today. Modi blasted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for calling Singh a “dehati aurat” during an informal press briefing.
Addressing his first rally in Rohini’s Japanese park in the national capital, Modi said that India must protest such an insult strongly. His voice met with heavy applause when he said that the party will stand up for the country’s prime minister at a global forum even if the BJP opposes the UPA on home ground.
Questioning Sharif’s authority and status, Modi said that the Pakistani PM should at least have respected Singh’s age. He said that he was “deeply hurt” by Nawaz Sharif’s comments.
This was very new to the media and public where Modi, a staunch oppose of UPA, its policies and every other move came into PM’s defence.
But he soon returned to his own tactics. As if he was making it clear that the only right of mocking PM vested with the home-leaders, he referred to Rahul Gandhi’s press crash drama. “It’s because the PM’s own party has insulted him. His own party leaders call the PM nonsense,” he said
Rahul Gandhi, preferring not to wait for Singh to return from the key UN summit, suddenly stated his “personal opinions” on the UPA’s ordinance protecting convicted politicians. Taking a dig at the whole act, Modi said, the “whims” of the “crown prince” of the Congress party must not colour the fate of the country or the stature of the prime minister abroad.
“The Congress has taken off the prime minister’s turban,” he said. “The nation has its doubts about you,” he declared as his message to Manmohan Singh.
Sharif’s comments came in the wake of a widely acclaimed address by Singh at the United Nations General Assembly, where he said Pakistan was at the “epicenter of terrorism” and that no conclusive talks on Indo-Pak relations would be possible so long as Pakistan continued to allow its soil to be used for aiding and abetting terrorism aimed at India.
While Modi did not make a reference to the PM’s speech at the UNGA, he claimed that Singh had, in reaching out to US President Barack Obama, portrayed India as a poor nation. “This is poverty marketing,” he alleged. He also took a well-timed potshot at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi: “Is this poverty only a state of the mind?”
Projecting himself as a humble ‘Sevak’, Modi said that his dream was not to lead but to serve. Sensing the popular mind, this time he also came up with the word ‘trust’ in his speech. “The BJP and Narendra Modi will never betray your trust,” he pleaded to the janata.
“We will live for your dreams, we will work for your dreams, and if the need arises we will give ourselves up for your dreams,” he further added. This next line in the speech was perhaps taken from the Rahul Gandhi himself who has been trying to sell food and dreams in his rallies.
Although one cannot be sure how much Rahul Gandhi and Congress gained from the big charade that he carried out in front of the media, it is pretty much clear that Modi is turning every rough corner for BJP into a new point scoring ally.
