2014 LS polls between Congress and RSS, not BJP: Ramesh

Says BJP dancing to tunes of RSS; accuses Modi of being only one to oppose GST

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said that 2014 general elections will be a fight between ideologies, of the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevakangh (RSS) which is making BJP dance to its tunes.

Ramesh, who was in Ahmedabad today, also accused Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi of being the only individual opposing implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), despite this being original idea of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and ex-finance minister Yashwant Sinha, senior leader of the BJP.

The union minister also asked the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Modi to tell people why he was opposed to GST, when the entire nation, all parties and state want it.

"The 2014 elections is not between individuals, it is between organisations and ideologies. We are not competing against the BJP, our real fight is with the RSS. The main key is with the RSS so BJP dances to its tunes," said Ramesh while interacting with media at the Gujarat Congress party headquarters in Ahmedabad.

"We are competing directly with BJP in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. There also, BJP is just a mask, the real face is that of the RSS. But in other states we are competing with different regional parties.  So it cannot be said that the 2014 elections is between the Congress and the BJP," he said.

Ramesh explained that in 2014 the fight was between the ideology of RSS and the Congress, history of RSS and history of Congress, priority of RSS and priority of RSS. "It is between what RSS wants to be future of India and what Congress wants to be the future of India," he added.

The minister clarified that unlike BJP, Congress does not need to project an individual as its leader or prime ministerial candidate. "In our country elections have never been based on individuals, it has been always about parties," he said.

"Rahul Gandhi is over leader who decides our game plan, runs the party and organisation. He is the vice president. We don not need to project him (as Prime Ministerial candidate), we do not feel to project him because he is already our leader. He is what he is. We do not have any insecurity complex," Ramesh claimed.

 

 

"We are happy were we are. We are aware that in 2014 elections will be difficult for us. We have been in power for 10 years and incumbency will be a big factor in these elections. But our action plan is optimistic and not individual based. It is not a strategy of me and I, it about we and us. Me, I is not in our dictionary," he further explained.

 

Questioning Modi on his opposition to GST, Ramesh said, "Time and again, Gujarat chief minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate has been considering himself as emperor and biggest advocate of economic development."  

 

"Gujarat chief minister is willing to speak on each and every issue of the world. I would like to ask him, please tell the people why was he against GST which was advocated by his colleague Sushil Modi, announced by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and finance minister Yashwant Sinha, and which was included in his party's election manifesto?" he questioned.

 

Ramesh said that there was a common consensus among all states on GST, BJP wants it, Congress wants it, all parties want it, but only one individual doesn't want it. "What kind of advocacy is this for development? Just because of opposition from one individual, BJP's own original idea, which the Congress accepted, is tuck up," he lamented.