Modi asks Rahul why one guy cannot set everything right

Bangalore, April 29 (IANS) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi late Sunday challenged Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on why one man (guy) cannot set everything right and offered to show to do it.

"I will show him (Rahul) how one man (guy) can set everything right, in response to a sermon he gave recently," Modi said at a BJP election rally here ahead of the Karnataka assembly poll May 5.

"Though born with a golden spoon, he (Rahul) did not read much, especially Indian history. He should have done some homework before giving sermons.

"He may be right about Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi that one man (or woman) can't do everything. But Sardar (Vallabhai) Patel and Lal Bahadur Shastri have shown how one man can change everything," Modi added.

At the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) April 4 in New Delhi, Rahul told India Inc: "If you think there is a guy who will come on a horse charging through and set everything right, that is not going to happen".

Though Rahul did not take Modi's name in his long speech, those who heard him felt he was indirectly referring to Modi, who is being projected as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the next general elections.

Modi told about 30,000 people in the National College ground here that while India's first prime minister (Nehru) was in-charge of integrating Jammu & Kashmir with the country, it was Sardar Patel as the home minister who united all the princely and feudal states across the country and brought them under the federal republic.

Similarly, he recalled how Shastri (then prime minister) with a single slogan of "jai jawan aur jai kisan" (victory to soldier and victory to farmer) brought green revolution into the country.

He said Shastri increased food production enabling the country to stop importing wheat under Public Law (PL) 480 from the US in mid-sixties after the Indo-Pak war in 1965.

"If he (Rahul) thinks that way, I am sorry for him as this country had shown many a time how one man with vision and leadership can bring about a drastic change in the lives of the people.

"Even I can show how to set right everything. Let him come to me for an open debate on what he said recently," Modi said, asking the electorate to reject the Congress in the assembly poll as the party's symbol (hand) was deceptive.

Modi said it was so because it does not show the face of its would-be chief minister unlike the BJP, which has projected state chief minister Jagdish Shettar as its chief ministerial candidate.