Narendra Modi hyping up development in Gujarat: Congress

PATNA: Congress today claimed that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will not succeed in becoming the prime minister, allegedly with his tactics of terrorising people or by creating a hype about development in his state which was not there in the first place.

"One cannot aspire to become the prime minister of the country by creating a hype about development in a state and terrorising the people to elect him to a post," Congress national spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das told reporters here.

Terming Modi an "arrogant and divisive" personality, Das alleged that he was "trying to spread the fear of violence among the people" to elect him as the country's next prime minister.

It was due to his failure to control the 2002 Gujarat riots that the United States and some other countries had accused him of "human rights violations" and denied him a visa, Das said and wondered how a person could aspire to be the prime minister when he would not get a visa to travel abroad.

Das also attacked Modi for attempting to force the country into accepting a presidential style of elections by getting himself anointed the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.

He questioned Modi's claims about development in Gujarat under his chief ministership since 2001 and said that the state lies at "11th place in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI)".

Gujarat has been dogged by "high malnutrition rate" among children and "rising unemployment rate" among youths, which puncture Modi's claims of development, Das added.