PM doing little to protect Pak Sikhs: Modi

PM doing little to protect Pak Sikhs: Modi
4 May 2009, 0253 hrs IST, Manveer Saini, TNN


AMBALA: With the Gujarat election phase successfully behind him and the hot election season entering the penultimate stage, BJP's star campaigner and chief minister Narendra Modi raised the political rhetoric a few notches as he hit the campaign trail in Haryana on Sunday. Flagging the attack on Sikhs in Pakistan to target Manmohan Singh, Modi said the prime minister, being a Sikh, should have done something to protect the interests of the minority community there.

In his first poll rally in the state during these parliamentary elections, Modi kept up his diatribe against the PM, saying he was a "total failure" as prime minister and had failed to protect the interest of his community in the neighbouring country where it was being forced to pay jaziya (tax on minorities) by the Taliban. "He remained mum over the issue of terrorist attacks in Mumbai. But now, not only as a prime minister but also as a Sikh he must make his stand clear on atrocities inflicted on Pakistani Sikhs."

In his near 45-minute address at the rally, which saw a handsome turnout, organized in support of BJP candidate Ratan Lal Kataria at the Gandhi Grounds, the senior party campaigner claimed that a number of UPA leaders were not in favour of projecting Manmohan Singh for the top job. "He is merely the choice of SRP (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka), which is the internal unit of Congress party. As far as Advaniji's remark is concerned, it does not refer to the state of his physical fitness, but of his tenure as prime minister. In fact, he has belittled the stature of PMO."

Using the inflation, internal security and development cards to flog the opposition with, the Gujarat CM claimed, "NDA is the only alternate before the masses". He exhorted his audience to "react to the unprecedented inflation just as you had done during the last elections, when onion prices had shot up massively."

Nearer home, he took a jab at incumbent MP Kumari Selja and chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying, "They have failed to revive the industry, especially Pinjore-based HMT. Today, half of Haryana lives in Gujarat because of the availability of jobs and business opportunities there. If the BJP can revive PSUs (public sector units) of Gujarat in six months, we can revive the same as well. All one needs is intention, which, clearly, the Congress is lacking."

The BJP leader later left for Sonepat to campaign for another party candidate - Kishan Singh Sangwan.

with thanks : Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/PM-failed-to-protect-Pak-Sikhs-Modi/articleshow/4479239.cms

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