Modi too self-obsessed, intoxicated with PM dream: Pilot

Slamming Narendra Modi for making rhetorical speeches on every given occasion, Union Minister Sachin Pilot says that the Gujarat chief minister is intoxicated with prime ministerial ambitions and is too self-obsessed to see "right from wrong".

The Corporate Affairs Minister also accused the BJP leader of creating a facade of development and governance, while his core objective remained a Hindutva agenda "to inflame passions and create divisions".

"However, people of India have moved beyond these issues and they have become much smarter today. India is a new country with a much more robust youth population and, middle class who want more colleges than some mandir or masjid," the young Congress leader said.

"I think Modi is self obsessed to such a point where he is not been able to see right from wrong and that often happens when a person is intoxicated with the obsession of becoming a potential prime ministerial candidate," Pilot told PTI in an interview.

Modi has been made chief of BJP's election campaign panel and is being seen as a strong contender to be the party's prime ministerial candidate during the next Lok Sabha polls.

Pilot, a Lok Sabha MP from Ajmer in Rajasthan, said that Modi's acceptability is questionable even within his own party and among the top leadership of the National Democratic Alliance, but he still indulges in his rhetoric on every given opportunity, including on an occasion like the Independence Day.

Referring to Modi's criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Independence Day speech, Pilot said that such an important day should not be used for doing narrow politics.

"Prime minister was not making a speech for one party...He was speaking as leader of this country. Still, Modi decided to do is politics on that day in his almost blatant and abundant desire to be projected as a potential prime ministerial candidate... This criticism and timing was most unfortunate," Pilot said.