Narendra Modi asks politicians to learn secularism from the army

REWARI : As the helicopter carrying Narendra Modi whirred above Rewari’s Secretariat stadium on Sunday afternoon, less than 48 hours after he was named as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, the capacity crowd offered a frenzied welcome to the Gujarat chief minister. Addressing a rally of ex-servicemen, Modi reached out to the armed forces while suggesting that the Congress-led government at the Centre could not be trusted with safeguarding the country’s borders.

In his one-hour speech, Modi stuck to his pet theme of leadership deficit and said a strong leadership was required to address cross-border terrorism as well as the threat to internal security from Maoists. “The problems are not at the borders, but in Delhi. Hence, the solution has to be found in Delhi,” said Modi.

Modi invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee thrice, but referred just once to estranged senior leader LK Advani, who had opposed his candidature. “It feels good to recall the government of Atalji and Advaniji,” the Gujarat chief minister said while talking of the need for a capable leadership to resolve pressing issues.

With former Army chief VK Singh in attendance, Modi asked politicians to learn lessons in secularism from the soldiers who fought together and said vote bank politics had become disgusting. In this context, he lashed out at the Sachar committee for doing a community-wise headcount in the armed forces. The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate also went down memory lane and recalled how he could not fulfil his dream of joining the Sainik School when he was in the fourth standard.

As slogans of “dekho dekho kaun aaya, bharat mata ka sher hai (look, who has come, it is Bharat Mata’s lion)” echoed and the sound of the lion’s roar was played, Modi spoke with a poster in the backdrop of his face against the Parliament House.

After the rally, Modi met party patriarch LK Advani at Ram Jethmalani’s residence in Delhi on the occasion of the senior lawyer’s birthday.