The Hindu : National : Modi's tirade against Sonia

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Saturday, May 08, 2004

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National

Modi's tirade against Sonia

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 7. Notwithstanding the disapproval by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, against personal attacks on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, kept up his tirade against Ms. Gandhi stating that nobody would even rent out a house to her in view of her background.

"Even before renting a house, the landlord asks about the background of the tenant. I ask the Congress leaders whether they know about the background of Ms. Gandhi before she married the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. When one cannot even rent out a house to her, how can we hand over the reins of the country to a stranger with a foreign origin,'' he asked while addressing his first election rally in Delhi at Adarsh Nagar and Jehangirpuri in the East Delhi parliamentary constituency.

Mr. Modi also addressed a series of meetings during the day including one at Rohini in Outer Delhi and in Sadar parliamentary constituency.

The local BJP candidate, Lal Bihari Tiwari, and the Delhi unit president, Harsh Vardhan, accompanied Mr. Modi. The music director, Ravindra Jain, lavished praise on the Prime Minister.

Mr. Modi termed the Congress the "biggest burden on the country" and it was high time that the nation "got rid of this liability."

Mr. Modi said Ms. Gandhi could not even recite Vande Matram without reading from a paper. "She has failed to learn this even during the last five years as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha."

The Congress focus, he said, had shifted from "Vande Mataram" to "Vande Mata-Rome" after Ms. Gandhi took over the reins of the party.

Referring to Bihar, Mr. Modi said the Congress had been forced to fight the smallest number of seats in this big State.

"When I meet my good friend Laloo Prasad Yadav, I will ask him why he gave the Congress only four seats. He could have given them five seats. At least five persons are needed for a funeral procession."

The meeting at Jehangirpuri was held at Gujarati Chowk that has a good number of people of Gujarati origin.

Referring to Ms. Gandhi's question as to where the BJP leaders were during the freedom struggle,

Mr. Modi said he would like to remind the Congress president that the main purpose of this freedom movement was to throw out foreigners.

The current Lok Sabha polls would determine the country's destiny, he said.

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