Ahmedabad: Arvind Kejriwal appears to be a man in a hurry. He capped off his four day tour of Gujarat by addressing a sizeable gathering in Ahmedabad where he not only called Narendra Modi a liar but dared him by claiming that he had done better work in his 49 days as Delhi Chief Minister than what Modi has done in the past 11 years.
By positioning himself as the one face who can measure up to the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, Arvind Kejriwal it appears, will now use his Gujarat findings to reap electoral gains in the Hindi heartland. Needless to say, the so called Modi growth model is being marketed hugely by the BJP in the Hindi heartland as Modi makes a bid for being India's next PM.
Kejriwal has done his homework well. Be it Sikh farmers of Kutch whose land the Gujarat government planned to acquire, the villagers who would lose their land to Special Investment Regions or the fisherfolk residing along Gujarat's coastline. Kejriwal made it a point to meet all those who have been left out of what is now popularly termed as Modi's growth model. He visited schools where there were no teachers, community health centres having no facilities and farmers who have no electricity. Needless to say his tirade against the corporate giants Reliance and Adani continued.
If Modi says corruption has reduced in Gujarat, he is lying. If Modi says that all farmers get electricity in Gujarat, he is lying. If Modi is saying that there is an 11 per cent agriculture growth here, he is lying, thundered Kejriwal. His claims drew applause and cheer from the crowd.
Kejriwal's concerted attempt to pitch himself against Modi was evident. Referring to the episode on Friday, where cops stopped him from gate-crashing into Modi's residence, Kejriwal asked, "Why is Modi scared of me? He sent the entire police force to stop me five kilometres from his residence. Am I a terrorist armed with weapons?" At another point in his speech, he dared Modi for a debate. "You decide where it should be. Come and refute the points that I am making," he said.
Kejriwal's Gujarat tour has not been without its share of confrontation either. The glass panes of his and Manish Sisodia's cars were smashed by BJP sympathisers, he was shown black flags at several places and even at Saturday's rally, stones wee pelted towards the dais and the police had to resort to a mild lathicharge to disperse Modi supporters.
To be realistic, the Aam Aadmi Party has a very limited base in Gujarat and is not expected to win too many seats from Gujarat in the Lok Sabha polls. In such a scenario, the only logical reason one can think of to explain Kejriwal's tirade against Modi is this. His personal political ambition. After all, it makes a lot of political sense to take on a man who is front runner for being the next Prime Minister of India.
Comments
0 comment