BJP, Congress take poll fight to new low

New Delhi/Raipur: With Assembly elections on and Lok Sabha polls fast approaching, the level of political debate continued to sink deeper.

On Thursday BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who has been asked by the Election Commission to explain his “khooni panja” remark, took a swipe at the health of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and targeted her son Rahul as a “shehzada” (prince).

In a personal attack, Modi said: “Madam, you are ill. Let the shehzada take over... And let’s see then if he can deliver round-the-clock electricity to Chhattisgarh.”

And in an indirect allusion to Mrs Gandhi’s Italian origin, he asked Rahul to explain if Central funds for Chhattisgarh came from his “mama’s (maternal uncle’s) house”.

In New Delhi, the Congress hit back at the Gujarat CM for his “low-level” attack, and demanded he apologise to the nation.

“We know Modi himself has no limits of decency, but he should at least think of the dignity of the party which has made him its PM candidate,” a party spokesman said.

It was also pointed out that Mr Modi appeared to have “conveniently forgotten” the strong reaction of his party when Time magazine ran a 2002 story on then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee “Asleep At The Wheel”.

The BJP had gone ballistic as Time asked “whether Vajpayee’s failing health still makes him the ideal guy to govern India”.

Next: Congress talking nonsense, says Modi

Congress talking nonsense: Modi

New Delhi/Raipur: In a series of meetings in Chhattisgarh on Thursday, including in chief minister Raman Singh’s hometown Kawardha, Modi said the Congress was “talking nonsense and resorting to desperate tactics” like objecting to opinion polls as it was “scared and frightened” of losing the elections.

Referring to the 2G and Coalgate scams, Modi also said the Congress had done a “Ph.D. in corruption” and said it was time for it to go.

The Election Commission had recently sent a notice to Modi for some controversial remarks and voiced its “displeasure” over the “tone, tenor and content” of some speeches by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

But it was not just top political leaders who are raisning eyebrows. Samajwadi leader Naresh Aggarwal was accused of “exposing his feudal mindset” as he targeted Modi by saying that a “tea seller cannot become PM”. Modi hit back by saying that “in a democracy even a person polishing shoes can be a bhagya vidhata”. He added: “Those born in rich homes, enjoying lives, are

mocking the poor of this country. That is why such language is used.” Realising his remarks could possibly have an adverse impact on the poor of Uttar Pradesh, Aggarwal quickly “clarified” that his statement was “misconstrued by the media”. He said: “I apologise if my statement hurt the sentiments of the poor, but I will not apologise to Narendra Modi.”

Another Congress leader, Beni Prasad Verma, who has often landed in trouble for his “offensive” remarks, even with his own party, called Modi a “khooni insaan” (murderer), in response to Modi’s “khooni panja” remark.

But shockingly, it was the Aam Aadmi Party, which is fighting for cleaner politics in the country, that sank to a really new low when its “star campaigner”, TV host Rajiv Laxman, known as Raghu in the show Roadies, used abusive language against home minister Sushilkumar Shinde while campaigning for the AAP’s Shazia Ilmi in Delhi. Both Ms Ilmi and Raghu profusely apologised only after the TV clip went viral Thursday.

They had allegedly used offensive lanugage against the home minister a couple of days back while campaigning in the R.K. Puram area. While Ms Ilmi claimed her party “never encourages the use of such language”, the clip clearly showed she was virtually endorsing the remarks made by the TV presenter at the rally.