'BJP strong despite Cong bid to defame Modi'

BJP President Rajnath Singh today asserted that the party would remain strong despite all attempts by the Congress to create problems for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and defame him.

Hitting out at the UPA Government for announcing a commission of inquiry into the Gujarat snooping case, Singh said the probe and Congress harping on the 2002 riots were attempts to defame BJP and divert public attention. “Congress will make all attempts to divert public attention from BJP’s core issues of good governance and development. We need to remain cautious about it,” he told the BJP’s special state executive committee meeting here.

“However much attempts are made to create problems and defame our prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, we will remain strong,” he said, questioning the rationale behind the Centre’s decision on snooping case when Gujarat government itself had set up a commission of inquiry. “When Gujarat government has set up a commission of inquiry to look into the snooping allegation and has asked it to submit a report in a time bound manner, rather waiting for the report, Central Government has decided to set up separate commission for inquiry in order divert people’s attention from our core agenda of good governance keeping elections in mind.”

He said the Centre’s decision put a big question mark on the country’s federal structure. When the state government had ordered an inquiry, the Centre should have waited for its report and “on not being convinced about it, government of India should have constituted a separate commission.”

Criticising the UPA for its “failure” to bring down inflation, Singh said, “I assure you as soon as our government comes to power, immediate and necessary actions will be taken to tame inflation and price rise.”

Singh also took a dig at Congress as well as Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi for corruption during the UPA rule. Lashing out at Congress for taking credit for the passage of Lok Pal bill in Parliament, he said, “Anna Hazare has to get the credit.”

Stating that Lok Pal by itself will be unable to effectively stop corruption, he advocated passage of whistleblowers Protection Bill and said essential services have to be made time bound.