Modi: Rahul global, can contest in Italy

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi honours Olympic medal winner shooter Gagan Narang at the Vivekanand Yuva Parishad in Rajkot

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi honours Olympic medal winner shooter Gagan Narang at the Vivekanand Yuva Parishad in Rajkot

Taunted by the Congress that Rahul Gandhi had a national stature while he was a state leader, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Monday took a swipe at the party, saying the young leader was an “international leader” who can also contest elections in Italy.
Raking up the issue of foreign origin of Congress president Sonia Gandhi again, the BJP stalwart, who spent his 62nd birthday on Monday continuing his month-long campaign in poll-bound Gujarat, also said he was proud to be a regional leader of the state.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has steadfastly opposed making Mr Modi a prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections, also greeted his Gujarat counterpart and wished him a long life. The forthcoming Assembly polls is expected to be a new arena for a Modi-Nitish face-off.
“Recently a Congress leader made a statement that Rahul Gandhi is a national leader of Congress and I am a regional leader. I am happy to be a leader of Gujarat but I do not agree to consider Rahul as a national leader,” Mr Modi said, addressing Swami Vivekananda Youth Convention in Rajkot.
“I am proud to be a regional leader of Gujarat. Rahul is not a national leader but an international leader and he can contest elections in India as well as in Italy,” Mr Modi said, once again targeting the Gandhi family over the foreign origin of Mrs Gandhi.
Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi had last week made the comment when he was asked whether the forthcoming election in Gujarat will be a “Modi vs Rahul” battle. He had said comparison cannot be made as Mr Gandhi is Congress’ national leader while Mr Modi is regional leader of Gujarat.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh also on Sunday described Mr Modi as a regional leader and Mr Gandhi a national one.
Mr Modi’s birthday was celebrated by the BJP in Bihar with a state minister from the party cutting a cake at its office in Patna.
Animal husbandry and fisheries minister Giriraj Singh cut a 62-kg cake during the occasion celebrated under the banner of the Narendra Modi Fans Association. Mr Singh has publicly backed Mr Modi’s candidature as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Alleging that the UPA government is deceiving the people, Mr Modi criticised the Manmohan Singh government for not fulfilling promises made in the Congress election manifesto in 2004. “In 2004, Congress in its manifesto had promised to give job to one crore youth but according to a report issued by the government of India, Gujarat is the leader in giving jobs with 72 per cent of share,” he said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/189862" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-9e419c009dde19e247bf9e9c62bf07ff" value="form-9e419c009dde19e247bf9e9c62bf07ff" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80615630" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.