Narendra Modi has character flaw, says Chidambaram

Launching yet another scathing attack on BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram said he suffered from character flaw.

Addressing a news conference in Vadodara in Gujarat on Sunday (April 27), Chidambaram said Modi used to call former Chief Election Commissioner James Michael Lyngdoh with his complete name to draw special attention towards his religion.

"I remember in the state assembly elections, Mr. Narendra Modi used to refer to the Chief Election Commissioner (former), we have always called him Mr. Lyngdoh, but in meeting after meeting he used to call him Mr. James, Michael Lyngdoh and what he is trying to do? What is the relevance of calling him James Michael Lyngdoh. I have known him in Delhi, he has worked with hundreds of ministers and civil servants in Delhi, nobody calls him James Michael Lyngdoh, and they call him Mr. Lyngdoh. The idea was to draw attention to his religion. That is a character flaw," said Chidambaram.

Refuting claims made by Modi, who is also the chief minister of Gujarat, on his development model, the finance minister said it was not inclusive.

"Gujarat is not the worst performing state in India. At the same time it is not the best performing state in India. It is somewhere in the middle, it is somewhere above the average. So there is much more that can be done in Gujarat by more inclusive model of growth. One of the reasons why Gujarat is stuck in the middle is that model of growth here is not very inclusive model," added Chidambaram.

The much talked about Gujarat's development model has become a poll issue for the ruling Congress party with many of the leaders including party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and her sister Priyanka Gandhi raising questions about it.

Modi has been exemplifying the model of development in his home turf Gujarat while trying to woo voters at election rallies by citing the development against specific growth parameters in Gujarat under his administration and by promising to get India out of its slowest economic growth in a decade and by pointing to his track record of cutting red tape and attracting investment in his state.