Gujarat polls: Congress harassed' Patidar CMs

Jasdan/Bhuj (Guj): Pushing the BJP’s campaign in Gujarat into high gear, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he is ready to sell tea but will never sell the country as he asked Rahul Gandhi why he had applauded the release of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.

“You are happy to hug the Chinese ambassador, you are clapping at the release of Hafiz Saeed, you cannot respect Indian Army’s surgical strike... But why did you speak about it? You could have just remained silent,” he said in Bhuj, not specifying how and where Gandhi had hailed Saeed’s release.

Mr Gandhi had recently tweeted, “Narendrabhai, baat nahi bani. Terror mastermind is free. President Trump just delinked Pak military funding from LeT. Hugplomacy fail. More hugs urgently needed.” The tweet had come after the release of LeT founder and 26/11 mastermind Saeed by a Pakistan court.

Hitting out at the Congress over a recent meme targeting his “chaiwala” past, the Prime Minister said in Jasdan that he is being targeted by the main opposition party because of his humble background and for being born to a “poor mother”.

“They are feeling uneasy because a chaiwala became the PM. We used to read in books how the downtrodden get harassed by those in higher strata. But I never imagined they would stoop so low,” Mr Modi said in his speech at Jasdan. 

He said he gets messages from people threatening him that they would once again turn him into a tea-seller.

“I want to tell them that I am Modi, who is ready to sell tea but will never commit the sin of selling the entire country,” he said, in an apparent reference to scams during the Congress-led UPA rule.

In an apparent bid to woo the influential Patidars, who seem to be drifting towards the opposition party, the Prime Minister said the Congress “harassed” four former chief ministers of the community because of a “grudge” against Gujarat.

Babubhai Jashbhai Patel, Chimanbhai Patel, Keshubhai Patel and Anandiben Patel belonged to the Patidar community.