Continuing his attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for promising to reopen some post-Godhra riot cases, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday dared him again to take action against him.
"The Prime Minister is trying to threaten us that if Congress comes to power, all the post-Godhra riot cases will be reopened and those involved in it will be punished, Do not try to threaten Gujarat," Modi said while addressing an election rally at the communally sensitive locality of Dairapur in Ahmedabad.
"You (Congress) are running the Central government for the last four years. If you have the guts, you can do whatever you want with me. You still have time till December 23, the date of counting of ballot papers", he said.
Modi criticised Congress President Sonia Gandhi for her 'merchants of death' remarks and said, "I wanted to fight this election on the issue of development. But Sonia Gandhi's remark saying I am the merchant of death revealed that the Congress did not want to fight the elections on the development plank".
Modi alleged that Congress was the protector of merchants of death as they have not allowed capital punishment to Afzal Guru, the main conspirator of the Parliament attack case. Keeping up his taunts against Manmohan Singh, Modi asked the crowd, "Do you recognise the Prime Minister? I am talking about Manmohan Singh. He is our Prime Minister," he said.
Modi asked the crowd, "Am I sitting on the Chief Minister's chair due to Sonia Gandhi or Congress"? When the crowd replied in negative, he said, "Why should I pay heed to what they say?"
Earlier, addressing a election rally in Vadodara, Modi accused the Congress President of misleading the people of Gujarat.
Gandhi, addressing election rallies on Thursday, had alleged that the Modi government had failed in laying 85,000 kms canals and sub canals of the Sardar Sarovar Dam due to which irrigation water could not reach 40 lakh hectare land. She had also alleged that the Gujarat government had failed to fill 28,000 goverment jobs reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the state.
Talking strong objection to these allegations, Modi alleged it was a dinner meeting of Sonia with Narmada activist Medha Patkar which had resulted in the delay of this project. The project was scheduled to be completed 20 years ago during Congress regime in the state but it was not done for which he cannot be held responsible, Modi said. He said 22,000 out of 29,000 backlog posts of SC/ST have already been filled during his tenure.