Ahmedabad/Limbdi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi changed his dress twice, a day after the Morbi tragedy in Gujarat, just as Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had done after the Delhi blasts in 2008, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said.
“[Russian president] Putin is making videos about the Morbi tragedy and we [PM Modi] are holding election rallies…. Shivraj Patil changes dress twice; today saheb [Modi] changed it twice….He may be sad but being emotional doesn’t change the situation,” AAP’s national joint general secretary Isudan Gadhvi said in an interview to ThePrint at Limbdi, about 100 km from the state capital.
“Kitne logon ki chitaayen jal rahi hain aur mein chunavi rallies karoonga….Tragedy wahan hui aur aap kapde change kar rahe ho [so many pyres are burning, and we are holding election rallies….there is a tragedy and you are changing dresses],” he said, adding that the Morbi bridge was started after repairs in nine months “because there is an election”.
A popular TV personality, Gadhvi quit journalism to take a plunge into politics last year and has emerged as the AAP’s most prominent face in Gujarat.
In the last 14 months, Gadhvi said, he has toured Gujarat twice and travelled 1.10 lakh km to galvanise public opinion against the two traditional parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — and give a chance to the AAP.
Conscious of the PM’s popularity in his home state, the AAP was wary of personal attacks on him, especially after the controversy over AAP state chief Gopal Italia’s disparaging comments about Modi and his mother.
After the Morbi suspension bridge accident that took over 135 lives, the AAP has turned the heat on Modi.
“AAP ki sarkar banegi toh Narendrabhai ki izzat bachi rahegi. In logon ne bhagaraa kar diya hai. Paper leak ho rahe hain, corruption ho rahaa hai, bridge toot raha hai…lathaa kand mein 75 log mar gaye hain,…Narendra bhai ki izzat jaa rahi hai na videsho mein…Putin dekhe ga toh kahan se, yeh toh Gujarat se hi hai. [If an AAP government is installed, Narendrabhai’s honour will remain intact. These people have spoilt it. There are paper leaks, corruption, bridge collapses, death of 75 people due to spurious liquor….Narendrabhai’s prestige in foreign countries is getting compromised. Putin will see he [Modi] is from Gujarat]….Narendrabhai’s izzat [honour] is at stake in America,” said Gadhvi.
He said that the PM should help to install an AAP government to save his own aabroo (honour) that his party colleagues in Gujarat have brought down through their acts of omission and commission.
“When Narendra Modi was the CM here, Gujarat liked him. The moment he left to become the PM, those left behind messed up Gujarat…. Narendrabhai has to take care of the country. Give Gujarat to us. We will take care of it well.
“I can assure him [Modi] that he should help the AAP to form the government, there won’t be any paper leak, no corruption….ministers will be in jail if any corruption comes out. Ek baar hamein madad kar dijiye [help us once],” Gadhvi said.
Claiming that there will be “a storm” in Gujarat in this election as was in Punjab, the AAP leader said that the people have lost faith in the Congress, too.
“It’s the Aam Aadmi Party’s destiny that the opposition Congress got weakened. In 2017, when it didn’t come to power and its leaders got sold [defected], then the people lost faith in the Congress. In the February 2021 municipal polls, the Congress got finished and then people started looking at the AAP as an alternative,” said Gadhvi.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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