Cong invokes Atal

New Delhi: In a novel move, the Congress has invoked former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to target BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Along with the photograph of the founder and tallest leader of BJP, the Congress website quotes Vajpayee as saying that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi did not follow Raj Dharma after the communal riots in his State in 2002. It wonders how can a person, who failed in his Raj Dharma as Gujarat Chief Minister, ever ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of India.

The Congress website quotes former Prime Minister Vajpayee as saying that Modi had not observed Raj Dharma during the Gujarat riots ("Shri Modi ne Raj Dharma ka paalan nahi kiya"). With a tag line "zara sochiye," it goes on to say, "Poorva Pradhan Mantri Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, jis vyakti ko Mukhya Mantri pad ke bhi yogya nahi samajhte the, kya aap desh ka bhavish us vyakti ke haathon mein de sakte hain? (‘Just think! Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vapayee did not think this man deserved to be even a Chief Minister. Can you entrust in the hands of such a person the future of the country?’) It quotes Vajpayee as saying in Manali in Himachal Pradesh, "Some people wanted to remove him. I was of the same opinion."

That Vajpayye was peeved over Modi’s handling of the situation was confirmed by Jaswant Singh, who held key portfolios in the Vajpayee Government, saying Vajpayee had even threatened to resign in 2002, unless the BJP takes action against Modi. He was clear that the reason for defeat of the NDA Government in 2004 was Modi's failure to control the communal pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. The Congress website points out that the BJP, having found a new icon in Modi, is working hard to distance itself from the Vajpayee legacy. Substantiating its point, it lists out instances like how Vajpayee's niece Karuna Shukla was forced to leave the BJP and join the Congress.

Jaswant Singh, a close confidante of Vajpayee, has been expelled from the party. Dr Subramainan Swamy, a known adversary of Vajpayee, who is even reported to have masterminded the downfall of Vajpayee government in 1999, has been given a prominent place in the BJP. "The BJP might forget Atal Behari Vajpayee. But every Indian must ponder over the questions he raised on the man, who is now the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate," it states. The website claims Vajpayee believed that the Modi Government did not do enough to not only control the riots, but even to provide relief and rehabilitation to those, who had been displaced during the riots.