Rahul ‘childish, mentally immature’: Modi hits back on Gujarat ‘toffee model’ comment

Hazaribagh: Hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for dubbing Gujarat development model as a 'toffee model', Narendra Modi on Tuesday compared the Congress vice president with children and said the word 'toffee' has caught his fancy after he repeatedly spoke about 'balloon'.

Addressing a rally here, Modi said he thought serious issues would be discussed in this election and the galaxy of BJP leaders including L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley and Murli Manohar Joshi were speaking on various subjects.

"But on the other side, there is a player whose mind doesn't move away from childishness. Such an important election about the country's future but for ten days, a word that gripped him was 'balloon'. For ten days he kept repeating it. However, children don't stick to a toy for too long and now he has caught the word 'toffee'.

"Now you tell me what to do. I am not of an age where I can play with balloons," Modi said in a clear dig at Rahul who on Monday dubbed the Gujarat model of development as 'toffee' model contending that land was given to few industrialists at throwaway prices.

He said it was for the people to decide whether or not they wanted those who play with balloons and crave for toffees.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said that as a child who sold tea, he had not got toffees but had his sights set on trophies. 

Modi also used the book authored by former adviser to PM Sanjaya Baru to take a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He said he had been attacking Singh but now realises that the Prime Minister did not have the real power, which lay with "one family", a reference to Gandhi family.

"I may have used some strong words against Singh over the last 10 years. But after reading the book, I feel I should not have attacked him because he was not at fault. The entire fault lies with mother and son (Sonia and Rahul)," Modi said.

"It would have been better, if I had not said those words because now it is clear, he had no fault. The entire responsibility rests on one family. It is all the work of mother-son or sometimes of the daughter and son-in -law", Modi claimed adding that they had ruined the country.

The BJP leader cited the unhappiness expressed by Singh's daughter Upender Singh over the disclosures made by Baru. "She is annoyed that Baru had revealed the inside story. This means that whatever Baru wrote is correct."

The BJP leader also accused UPA of being responsible for the plight of the farmers and soldiers.

Exhorting the youth, he said it was a very important election for those in the 18-28 years age group.