Modi: UPA govt on ‘borrowed time’

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Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during an interactive session with industrialists at a hotel in Kolkata on Tuesday. — Abhi

Parrying a question on his prime ministerial aspirations, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday said that he was not a apolitical person. “A politician may have (an ambition to become Prime Minister), but I am not a politician. I am an apolitical person,” he said. Mr Modi was interacting with the captains of industry at a five-star hotel in the city.
Mr Modi claimed that the Congress-led UPA government had been struck by a “policy paralysis.” Lashing out at the Centre, he said that there was no government and no governance. “It (UPA government) is not looking at calendar, but at the clock. It is on borrowed time,” he added. Mr Modi was speaking at a programme jointly organised by three chambers of commerce. Meanwhile, addressing the BJP party workers at Mahajati Sadan later in the afternoon, Mr Modi once again took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s acceptability. “How can he be acceptable to the country when he is not accepted as the leader within his own party? I am sure no Congress party worker would say Manmohan Singh is their leader,” he claimed. BJP workers applauded loudly when the Gujarat CM said there were two power centres in the Congress.
“They say there are two power centres in the Congress. But where exactly is it?” he asked.
The tech-savvy chief minister added that the Prime Minister’s Office these days “begins tweeting against me even before I finish my speech”.
Mr Modi also criticised the Centre stating that it had floundered on several issues, including that of Italian marines and Pakistani troops beheading Indian soldiers. “It is astonishing that the Italian Marines, accused of killing Indian fishermen, were allowed to go to Italy to vote, while even if the mother of an Indian accused dies, he is not allowed to go to her funeral,” he said.