26/11 had local help, says Modi

NAGPUR: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi livened up proceedings on the third day of the BJP���s national executive-cum-council here on Sunday morning.

Intervening in the discussion on the political resolution, moved earlier in the day by party general secretary Arun Jaitley, Mr Modi took on the Manmohan Singh government for its ���half-hearted��� and ���feeble��� attempt to get to the bottom of the conspiracy behind the Mumbai terror assault.

Alleging that the policies of the ruling combine were driven by vote-bank politics, he said that Pakistan could not have carried out the attack without the help of local elements, but the government had refused to identify this link for petty vote-bank considerations.

���Who���s stopping them from getting them (the local help)? It���s only vote-bank politics, which is leading the country on the path of destruction,��� he alleged.

In his 45-minute speech, the Gujarat chief minister launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the Manmohan Singh government for its governance track-record, while trying to puncture the projection of Congress as the party of the youth and modernisation.

���For a long time now, there has been a sustained campaign to vilify the BJP as a Brahmin-Baniya party, a party of the Hindi heartland and an urban party, even when the party was winning elections in various corners. There is an attempt to depict the party as being anti-women, even though the BJP has the maximum number of women representatives,������ he pointed out.

Reeling out statistics, he said that the BJP was a more youthful party. ���You compare the average age of the Congress CMs with that of the BJP CMs, and you will find that the BJP is way ahead. The average age of party MPs and MLAs is lesser than that of Congress MPs and MLAs,������ the Gujarat chief minister contended.

He argued that a party which thrived on dynastic politics could not take the country on the path of modernisation. ���For 42 years, only one dynasty ruled the roost in the country. In America, people voted for change. In India too, people wanted to be freed from the clutches of one family, which has wreaked havoc. There is a conspiracy to destroy the future by consistently harping on the past. A family which is perpetually talking about its legacy cannot have the vision to modernise the country,������ Mr Modi alleged.

The Gujarat chief minister claimed that the BJP was better-placed to lead a coalition government as it could reconcile regional aspirations. ���Coalition as a culture was sought to be developed by the Vajpayee government, which was in tune with the federal structure and the regional aspirations. It placed the nation before the party,������ he said.

Mr Modi lashed out the Manmohan Singh government for ���goofing up��� on all fronts, including the economy, terrorism, infrastructure and interests of the weaker sections such as the women and SC/STs.

Advocating zero tolerance on terrorism, the Gujarat chief minister asserted that terrorists had to be replied in the same language, and blamed the UPA government for ���bringing back��� Kashmir on the ���centrestage��� of international diplomacy.

He also flayed the recent amendments in the CrPC and SC/ST Atrocities Act, which ���allowed��� the accused an ���escape-route���. ���The police could earlier summarily arrest an accused on the complaint of a victim. After the amendments, the police has been forced to offer a kidglove treatment to the accused. This is the legacy of the government led by Ms Gandhi,������ the BJP leader alleged.

Earlier, presenting the political resolution, Mr Jaitley alleged that the country was facing crises on all fronts. ���This is attributable to the manner in which the Union government has handled the affairs of the country. Determined leadership, decisive governance and coherent policy was never demonstrated by the Manmohan Singh government,������ he said.