Calling Narendra Modi a “chest-thumping, self-proclaimed hero”, Union minister Sachin Pilot on Sunday said it is not possible for the Gujarat leader to be like former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The Congress leader also said that the life motto of Mr Modi and many other BJP leaders is to “compromise and do whatever it takes to get to the position of Prime Minister”, but they must understand that “you cannot change colours overnight”.
“People who plan, conspire, desire and run after the post of Prime Minister, they will never make it. It comes to you with your work, honesty and acceptance,” Mr Pilot said.
The 36-year-old Lok Sabha MP from Ajmer in Rajasthan, who holds the charge of the corporate affairs ministry, said that Mr Modi is positioning himself as an “avatar” of the former Prime Minister, but Mr “Modi is no Vajpayee”. The comments come amidst a political furore over Mr Modi’s comments that he is a ‘Hindu nationalist’ and he did “absolutely the right thing” during 2002 riots in the state. The Gujarat CM has been made the BJP’s chief campaigner for the next Lok Sabha elections and is widely being speculated as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
“Modi is a chest-thumping, self-proclaimed hero in his own making. He needs projection, and his party and PR agencies are pumping in money to project him as face of the BJP and their poll campaign,” Mr Pilot told PTI in an interview here. Taking on Mr L.K. Advani as well, the minister said that the BJP strongman is now being projected as a “secular” face in the party, but people see through these gimmicks and they still remember his role in Rath Yatra and Ram Mandir issues. “Becoming Prime Minister is not the end of the world for any of the Congress leaders, but it is so for Advani, Modi and ten other people in the BJP,” he said. Mr Pilot said the talk about Mr Modi contesting next Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi, Allahabad or Lucknow in UP might be because of his “endeavour to become an avatar of Vajpayee”.