Mumbai:
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is courting controversy again. This time by questioning the secular credentials of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Speaking at a function in Mumbai, Mr Modi said last evening, "Indira Gandhi committed a big sin - as such there as many sins - in the Congress manifesto they claimed if they won in the North-East, governance would be according to the Bible...Would this not spread separatism?"
Mr Modi, whose own secular credentials have been regularly challenged by Mrs Gandhi's party, the Congress, also pointed out that "no secularists took objection to this statement."
He praised the role of the people of the North East in India's struggle for Independence and said they had been denied due honour and acknowledgement. And then again took a jibe at the Nehru-Gandhi family, without naming them this time, saying, "If we try to highlight patriotic events or make people aware of such inspiring personalities, it would motivate today's generation so much. People gave up their lives for the country, spent their entire lives in jails in Andaman and were even executed. If these incidents are highlighted, then it will definitely affect one family. Just because of this worry, history is being trampled upon. Each page of history is being burnt to ashes."
The Congress is livid. Spokesperson Rashid Alvi said today, "It is highly unfortunate that someone points fingers at Indira Gandhi. She was widely respected across the globe. If anyone has doubts over her credibility, then it is inappropriate."
Another Congress leader, MP Prabha Thakur was quoted by ANI as saying, "Narendra Modi himself does communal politics. He forgets that policies of Mahatma Gandhi are still followed. The Congress respects every religion, every community."
She admitted she did not quite know the context that Mr Modi had said this in last night, but the slur on Mrs Gandhi was clearly enough provocation. "He (Mr Modi) should improve his communal spectacles by which he sees things," Ms Thakur was quoted as advising the Gujarat Chief Minister, and she emphatically added, "The people of this country know everything...the people of this country won't believe what he said."
Mr Modi, who turned the function to felicitate the winner of the Our North East (ONE) India into a bash-the-Congress occasion, didn't spare Prime Minister Manmohan Singh either; he criticized him for failing to stem the slide of the Rupee. He also said that Dr Singh, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha, had "remembered in 2008 that there should be a Vision Document. It's 2012 and they are still reading it. God knows who knows what will happen to the North-East," he said.