JOIN USA day after Narendra Modi gave strongest ever indication of his prime ministerial ambitions, the Congress on Thursday raked up the issue of post-Godhra riots, hoping that the Gujarat chief minister did not have plans to do in the rest of India what he did in his state in 2002.
“If he is planning to pay off the country’s debt in Delhi like he did in Gujarat, then I am scared. I can only say that God may always be with us,” party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said, reacting to Modi’s Thursday remarks that it was time for repaying the debt of the nation.
The Congress, which avoided making reference to post-Godhra riots during Gujarat assembly polls, even compared Modi with Yamaraj, the Lord of Death in Hindu mythology, in a veiled manner and feared of the “consequences” if he becomes the prime minister.
“Had he intended to indicate Modi he would not have referred to somebody riding a horse but instead somebody riding a buffalo (Yamaraj’s vehicle).
Rahul has talked about somebody coming on a horse, he must be referring to a messiah,” Alvi said when asked if the Congress vice-president was referring to Modi in his speech at an event of Confederation of Indian Industry on Thursday.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari also spoke in similar vein, hoping that “he (Modi) doesn’t want to do in the rest of India what he did in Gujarat in 2002.”