Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday targeted the Centre and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of advisories sent to Karnataka and Orissa over attacks on some churches there.
"The statement issued by the government of India to Karnataka and Orissa is a part of votebank politics. Madam ko 355 candles ki aarti utaari gayi hai. (It is an act to please Madam)", he said in an obvious reference to Sonia.
Modi also said the Centre's action was an attempt to target non-Congress governments and deflect attention from the "simmering anger across the country against terrorism."
"The Centre has used this political weapon in an attempt to save itself from the simmering anger across the country against terrorism," he told reporters on the sidelines of an orientation programme on climate change.
Modi was replying to questions on reports that the Centre was planning to send advisories under Article 355 of the Constitution to Karntaka and Orissa. The advisory sent to Karnataka on Friday was not issued under Article 355.
"I want to ask the Centre why it did not use Article 355 when Hindi-speaking people were massacred in Assam. Why did the Centre not use Article 355 when blood continued to be spilled in Nandigram for months and why it never thought of using 355 in Jammu Kashmir where lot of terror attacks take place," he said.
Modi, who is emerging as an anti-terror posterboy of the Bharatiya Janata Party, sought to know why the Congress-led government enacted the Illegal Migrants (determination by tribunals) Act to protect Bangladeshi nationals.
"The Supreme Court had struck down the act and directed the government to formulate a mechanism to flush out illegal immigrants, yet it has failed to act," he said.