JOIN USAddressing a mammoth rally at Japanese Park here, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi took potshots at Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit saying that the Congress leader was an expert in “cutting ribbons”.
He said she is in the habit of passing the buck whenever she finds herself cornered on any issue.
“Delhi chief minister was the ‘happiest CM in India’ because she has no work to do other than cutting ribbons at inaugurations. She has no responsibilities. She does not have agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries or irrigation to take care of,” Modi said amid the huge applause he received from the enthusiastic audience.
Passing the buck
“If there are potholes on the roads, she blames municipal corporations. If there is a law and order problem, she blames the Centre. She passes the buck up or down,” he said.
Targeting Dikshit on the issue of women’s safety in the national capital, he said, “When an incident like the Delhi December 16 gang rape occurs, all she can do is to advise women to return home early.”
Modi also blamed the chief minister for mismanagement in the Commonwealth Games that “robbed the country’s future in sports”.
“The corruption related to the CWG cannot be seen only in terms of financial irregularities. The Commonwealth Games scam has robbed India of its sportsman spirit,” he said.
“Such games are a vehicle to show to the world brand India. But we could not do it because of mismanagement. Our country has been robbed of such opportunities for the next 20 years,” he added.
With the Assembly polls round-the-corner, he targeted her on several counts.
However, he refrained from making any comment about the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party.
BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, who spoke before Modi’s speech, took a dig at the Arvind Kejriwal-led party stating that AAP is the B-team of the Congress.
Promise
Earlier, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Vijay Goel made several promises stating that the BJP government, if voted to power would provide everything in 15 months what the Sheila Dikshit government could not provide in 15 years.
“We will reduce power tariffs by 30 per cent apart from providing sewage facility in all the colonies. We will also improve law and order situation in the city. Sheila Dikshit says she is scared even for her daughter, but we would ensure security of her daughter as well,” said Goel.
An estimated 2.5 lakh people attended the Modi rally on Sunday.
Those who turned up for the event largely constituted of party workers who were brought in buses and other vehicles from different parts of the country, as well from the satellite towns of national capital region (NCR).
A few hundred people from the minority community were also seen attending the rally wearing skull caps and women wearing burqas.
However, the minority cell president of Delhi BJP Atif Rasheed claimed “20,000 Muslims from different parts of the city attended the rally”.