This Article is From Apr 25, 2014

After Narendra Modi's Varanasi roadshow, bickering over statues

After Narendra Modi's Varanasi roadshow, bickering over statues

Narendra Modi's roadshow in Varanasi, UP

New Delhi: Narendra Modi's extraordinary roadshow in Varanasi on Thursday, billed as the biggest of this election, has ignited more political sparring over iconic leaders from India's past.

The Congress today tried to downplay a comment by a party leader Ajay Maken, who alleged yesterday that Mr Modi's roadshow and the statues he garlanded on the way showed his "complete commitment towards a religion."

The statement has reportedly left his party squirming as Mr Maken had inadvertently included the Congress' own icons in that descriptor. During his roadshow, Mr Modi had stopped to garland the statues of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first home minister, and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, four-time president of the Congress before independence, apart from Swami Vivekananda.

Mr Maken appeared to criticise what he called the act of garlanding the "proteges of Hindu leaders or people who are associated with a particular religion." The BJP retorted that there was "nothing religious about it, it's about nationalism."

A day after Mr Maken's comments, another Congress leader, Kapil Sibal, said it was Mr  Modi who had made the roadshow communal.

The Congress has complained to the Election Commission that the procession that saw Mr Modi covering two km in three hours, received so much media coverage on a day when voting was held in some parts of the country, that it violates the rules of campaigning.

Mayawati, regional powerhouse from Uttar Pradesh, today added, "On a day of polling , the media was showing a one-sided Modi roadshow. This is against democracy."

Mr Modi filed his nomination papers yesterday as the BJP candidate from Varanasi, which votes on May 12, four days before the results of the national election will be announced.

Under Mr Modi, the BJP is expected to hit its best-ever electoral performance; the Congress, fronted by Rahul Gandhi, may be staring at its biggest defeat, say opinion polls including NDTV's.
.