New Delhi: Narendra Modi stands for 'model of dividing India', Congress said on Saturday. The party also accused BJP leaders of playing the "communal card" to garner votes.
Union minister Kapil Sibal's remarks at the AICC briefing came days after Priyanka Gandhi had mocked Narendra Modi for his ABCD and RSVP jibes against Congress telling him that he should realise that he was not addressing primary school students.
Modi had said that Congress was faithful to the RSVP model, meaning Rahul, Sonia, Robert Vadra and Priyanka, the Gandhi family members.
He had also attacked UPA government saying "A for Adarsh scam, B for Bofors scam, C for Coal scam, D for Damad (son-in-law) scam ... this is the new A B C D... which the Congress adopted to introduce in a new book of alphabets for children."
Sibal accused Modi of lowering political discourse saying, "he was aiming to be the PM but even a municipal councillor would know better about use of language and maintaining dignity."
Releasing a number of photos allegedly taken from Twitter account of some senior BJP leaders as well as from some district level leaders, Sibal said photographs of events in Pakistan, Palestine and Bangladesh were being shown on these twitter handles as occurring in India to communalise the atmosphere.
He said one of the accounts is in the name of Nitin Gadkari. Though it does not belong to him but the former BJP president has not sought action against the fake account holder. It has a photograph of Gadkari and shows a photo of burning of Indian tricolour in Pakistan as something that happened in Hyderabad.
He also referred to a picture on the Twitter account of the district president of BJP minority cell in Kheda in Gujarat Asma Khan Pathan, which had a tweet with a photo of burning of Indian flag "falsely claiming" that Bangladeshi Muslims burning the Indian tricolour in Assam while the actual incident had taken place in Karachi.
Sibal also referred to a Twitter account of one Kiran Kumar S "followed by Narendra Modi" and said it had photo of gun-totting militants of Hamas as a photo from Kerala under the title "Kerala's shocking deterioration. Terror's own country".
Alleging that creating a "national divide" by polarising the polity for political dividend has been the strategy of the BJP, the Union minister said, "whenever they find that their chances of acceptability are at its nadir, they play the communal card."
"Advani did this by launching the Rathyatara. BJP played the communal card by being instrumental in demolishing the Babari Masjid. Modi did this by polarising the polity in Gujarat. Failure of the administration to protect the victims of riots led to alienation of the minority.
"Fake encounters reflected the diabolic mindset of the Gujarat administration. The secular fabric of Gujarat was shaken at its roots. Modi saw political dividends in following a divisive strategy. In preparing for 2014, Modi wanted to play the same communal card, which had brought success to the BJP in past," Sibal alleged.
Releasing the photographs, he also accused BJP's functionaries and sympathisers of being "involved in this nefarious enterprise".
Quoting excerpts from the Gujarat BJP website, the Congress spokesperson said that Modi was involved with the Somnath to Ayodhya yatra of L K Advani and a similar march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
Sibal also came out with portions of speeches of Modi, Vajpayee and Advani in the past to claim that the events starting from Somnath Yatra to Muzaffarnagar riots are all part of "campaign for a communally vitiated environment".
"We will oppose with all our might the divisive, factional and communal politics epitomised in the persona of Modi," Sibal said.
Ridiculing Modi for talking about Muslims, Sibal said," When Advani started his Rath Yatra in 1991 and then in 1995, who takes the credit for the same. Today Modi says that he is in favour of Muslims and wants that they should come along with him.
"Gujarat BJP's website on Narendra Modi says that between 1988 and 1995, Modi was recognised as a master strategist who had successfully done the necessary groundwork for making the Gujarat BJP then ruling party of the state."
Noting that Modi was entrusted with the responsibility of organising two crucial national events, the Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra of Advani and a similar march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in the North, the Congress leader quoted the website as saying that the ascent of the BJP to power at New Delhi in 1998 has been attributed to these two highly successful events substantially handled by Modi.
"Now they admit that in 1998 when they came in power, the credit goes to Modi because of Rath March and March from Kanyakumari to Kashmir which is purely a communal agenda and they admit it also that they will come to power on the basis of this communal agenda.
"They decided Ramjanambhoomi movement in 1984, in 1991 Somnath Yatra, in 1992 Babri Masjid and in 1995 Kanyakumari and then they came to power in 1998. Then India shining and they did not come to power. Now they think 'Agar Ab Nahi to Kabhi nahin'. So they are again playing communal card," Sibal said.
