Modi to bring back Hinduvta on Jan 23
Hindutva is set to be back on agenda during BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi rally in Gorakhpur on January 23.
Party MP Yogi Aditynath is supervising the preparations for the rally, for which the main stage, from where Modi will address the gathering stage, will come up in the shape the Gorakhnath temple. “The stage will be given the shape of Gorakhnath temple. Photographs of Guru Gorakshnath, Mahavir Jain, Sant Kabir and Gautam Budhha will form the backdrop of the stage,” Adityanath, who is also the head priest of Gorakhnath temple, told PM-Modi.
Guru Gorakshnath is believed to be an incarnation of lord Shiva and the temple dervies its name from him. A picture of freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil will also be put up on the stage. The cultural heritage of Poorvanchal will be displayed through replicas in the rally, Adityanath said. The preparations for the programme have been launched in such way that devotees visiting the temple for Khichdi Mela starting January 14 could also be roped in for the rally. To a query, Adityanath said that BJP had never left the agenda of Hindutva. “Hindutva is symbol of nationalism and carrying it forward is not a crime,” he said, adding that people from all sections of society will take part in the rally.
The rally will be held at Maanbela ground of Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA). Party is expecting a crowd of 5 lakh people from 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Gorakhpur region. Party currently has only three MPs in the region, including from Gorakhpur, Azamgarh and Bansgaon. Out of 62 Assembly constituencies of the region, BJP had won only eight in 2012 elections.
Former diplomat Hardeep Puri joins BJP ahead of Lok Sabha elections
Retired career diplomat Hardeep Puri, who served as India's permanent representative at the UN joined BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, following in the footsteps of former Home Secretary RK Singh and Petroleum Secretary RS Pandey.
Puri, a 1974-batch Indian Foreign Service Officer, had put in 39 years of service and held several senior positions in the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence Ministry. He held Ambassadorial assignments in London and Brasilia. In 2011 and 2012, as Permanent Representative at UN in New York, he led the Indian delegation to the Security Council. He also chaired its Counter-Terrorism Committee. Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, with whom Puri enjoys a good relationship, is understood to be instrumental in bringing him into the party.
Former Home Secretary RK Singh had joined the BJP on 13 December along with Sunil Shastri, son of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, former petroleum secretary RS Pandey and retired Railways official Dharam Singh in presence of BJP president Rajnath Singh. Welcoming Puri in the party fold, Rajnath Singh said, "We look forward to utilising his experience in the areas of Foreign, Security and Trade policies".
Puri said he was delighted to formally join the party which he had long admired for its strong sense of nationalism. He said he looked forward to doing party work and was ready to contribute in whatever manner the party president and BJP's senior leadership asked him to.
Narendra Modi takes on 'akashvani' Rahul Gandhi
Modi said at a rally in Jharkhand capital Ranchi that instead of taking responsibility for the things which went wrong under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule in the last ten years, party vice- president Rahul Gandhi, who had begun to voice dissent on a number of issues, was playing the role of an “akashvani” (an angelic voice in the sky).
“In ancient times, people heard akashvani that came as if they (voices) were not concerned about the happenings around....Today, there is akashvani that CMs will do this, CMs will do that." Gandhi, at a meeting with chief ministers of Congress- ruled states on Friday, had asked them to check prices. He had also disapproved the Maharashtra government’s rejection of the probe report on the Adarsh housing scam.
Although Modi did not name Gandhi, he referred several times to an “akashvani” that was running away from “responsibility” and hiding from the mess of corruption, inflation, unemployment, industrial crisis and growing poverty due to UPA’s wrong policies. “Such people are seeking to appear now, as if they are part of the solution.Those who created this mess and betrayed the people can never solve it because they lack conviction or resolve.”
Modi did not touch upon the Gujarat verdict, but said the people were tired of caste-ism and communalism played by political parties and looked forward to a decent form of governance that would fulfil their basic aspirations. BJP president Rajnath Singh, however, paid compliments to the Gujarat chief minister for having come out victoriously from “attempts” to enmesh him in 2002 riots cases.
“You (the Congress) may hatch many new conspiracies like snooping and by ordering an inquiry... but nothing will come out of it. Modi will come out clear and take over the reins of this country like Ram did after 14 years of exile.” The Union cabinet has formed an inquiry commission to probe allegations of snooping on a woman allegedly carried out at the behest of former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah, a Modi aide. Singh added “the BJP must get enough seats and Jharkhand must deliver all 14 seats” to make the people’s wishes to see Modi as the future PM come true. “Don’t even look at our candidates. Just look at Modi and see what he can do and vote BJP,” he said.
Focusing on BJP’s target to win all the seats in Jharkhand, eight of which are held by the party now, Modi too said the state, which has seen political instability and corruption, had a bright future if its residents made the right choice in 2014. “They (political opponents) ask me what my vision for the country is. My answer is that solution for Jharkhand lies not in the way you have turned it into a quagmire of poverty,” Modi said.
Baba Ramdev to go on door- to-door campaign for Narendra Modi
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday said he will organize a door-to-door campaign—Vote for Modi—in the run up to the 2014 polls.
Ramdev, who was speaking at the Press Club, came down heavily on the Nehru family and the Congress. "Corruption exists in all parties. But politicians like Modi, Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik are not corrupt. The difference between the Congress and the BJP is that even the top leaders of the former are corrupt," he said.
Referring to Rahul Gandhi as a 'baccha', he said Modi is like the Himalayas and Rahul is too small. "Rahul has become a zero from hero. He hasn't done anything in the past 10 years, what will he do now," he said.
He said he hopes to get answers from Modi on January 5 regarding problems faced by the common man in the fields of agriculture, education and health.
The yoga guru didn't even spare the new Delhi chief minister. "Arvind Kejriwal made three mistakes. He didn't stick to his promise of neither lending nor taking support from any party. He went on to take support from the Congress . He also passed comments against Anna Hazare," said Ramdev. "The day they file an FIR against Sheila Dikshit, the support will end," he said.
Baba said he doesn't believe that the Aam Aadmi Party can replicate its success in other states. "AAP can cause side effects but can't have a big impact," he said, assuring people that he will never enter active politics but only support politics that ensures a good democracy.
For Modi’s Kolkata rally, online booking of seats, entry fee
A majority of people will have to pay up to get a glimpse of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during a public rally at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on February 5.
Those looking forward to be seated closest to the platform from where Modi will address the rally, will have to get their seats booked online. The bookings will open January 3 —- the day the state
party leadership will decide on the amount of fee for the seats.
“We will earmark seats for the young people and will exhort them to book
their seats. We are targeting people in the age group of 18 to 25. The rally will attract lakhs of people,” Rahul Sinha, state BJP chief, told.
The BJP had put an entry fee to attend a Modi rally for the first time at a public meeting in Hyderabad some months back. It is also planning to charge Rs
5 from those intending to attend Modi’s Goa rally on January 12.
In Kolkata, the party has already begun preparing for the rally. “We have planned 100 rallies and street meetings in the state in January to prepare for Modi’s rally. We have a target of bringing in at least 1 lakh people,” Shamik Bhattacharya, party state general secretary, said.
'The NaMo Store' opens, to sell merchandise inspired by Narendra Modi online
A new online store dubbed 'The NaMo Store' is now selling merchandise inspired by Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. The NaMo Store includes products like T-shirts; stationary material including desk organisers (paperweight, reminder pad, pen-stand and notebooks), and pen-drives. According to Live Mint, there are plans to launch physical stores in major cities and that the first brick and mortar store would be in Ahmedabad.
Live Mint cites a team member of the online store, who said, "The NaMo Store will also be launching their own retail stores across different cities in India for wider reach in near future. The stores will be opening in major cities in India."
The online store is from Take India Beyond Merchandising Pvt. Ltd. which describes itself as a "merchandising brand that goes beyond mere profits". Notably, the T-shirts available on The NaMo Store sport slogans, logos and images of Narendra Modi.
In November, a Narendra Modi-inspired game, Modi Run was launched on Android for free. The gameplay of Modi Run is based on the classic Mario series, not the Temple Run series as indicated by the name; here Modi's character is seen beating obstacles and collecting diamonds at various stages. Interestingly, the developer has named the stages after Indian states.
We have also seen Narendra Modi-inspired smartphones that were launched in September this year. On Wednesday, the Congress party announced that it would create a 'cyber-army' to combat BJP's onslaught on social media. Senior Congress leader, Ahmed Patel confirmed the news, saying, "We will be creating our cyber army to counter the BJP's onslaught on social media which has become important in the run-up to the 2014 general elections."
Clean chit to Modi, court rejects Zakia Jafri's plea
In big relief to Narendra Modi, metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra rejected Zakia Jafri's protest petition against the Supreme Court- appointed SIT's clean chit to Narendra Modi and 57 others in a 2002 Gujarat riots case. The magistrate had earlier fixed October 28 and then December 2 for pronouncement of verdict on Zakia Jafri's petition against the clean chit to Modi and 57 others which included top BJP leaders and police officers.
Since the judge could not complete the order, he posted it for Thursday. Zakia's husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the riots along with 69 others in one of the worst massacres at Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
Proceedings in the matter ended on September 30. The court has got more than 25,000 pages of the SIT's probe report for perusal. Further, Zakia Jafri had filed a voluminous protest petition and written replies. The SIT too has filed a written reply as rejoinder. It was on September 12, 2011 that the Supreme Court had said it would no longer monitor the case after the SIT cleared Modi of the accusation that he had failed to discharge his constitutional duty to intervene swiftly to stop communal riots.
The case was sent back to the lower court. Modi had immediately tweeted, "God is great," and announced the three-day Sadbhavana fast to embrace Muslims. The fast, started on his 61st birthday on September 17, 2011 had launched his campaign to become BJP's prime ministerial candidate. The SIT claimed that it could not find any prosecutable evidence against the accused persons regarding their involvement in the alleged conspiracy behind the riots. It had even refused to treat IPS officers like RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt as witnesses on the ground that their statements are hearsay evidence.
On the other hand, Zakia has alleged that the SIT has been shielding Modi and others by not believing statements given by these police officers and neglecting the available evidence.
Zakia has accused the SIT of playing the role of a court by adjudging the truth of the available evidence. Her lawyers contended that the investigation was incomplete and the probe agency had not even done it seriously. On the opinion of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran that Modi may be prosecuted for inciting communal hatred, the SIT has said that there is no evidence to prosecute him, and the incident alleged was beyond the ambit of its probe.
In 2006, Zakia had filed a complaint about the role allegedly played by Modi and 62 others during the 2002 riots. When Gujarat police did not register her complaint, she moved the Gujarat high court which asked her to approach a magisterial court. She chose to move the apex court.
The SC asked the SIT to look into the issue. When the probe team came up with a report, the SC asked it to tender it before the concerned magisterial court. Accordingly, it filed a closure report against all the accused persons on February 8 last year.
BJP coins new slogan: one vote, one note
Declaring that it will get an outright majority of its own, Congress's principal challenger on Tuesday announced an ambitious outreach programme which will extend down to the booth level.
"BJP will reach out to 10 crore families for donations that could be anything from Rs 10 to 1000, in the name of Modi for PM," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters after a meeting of party's PM candidate Narendra Modi, chief ministers and senior leaders.
Coming just after its effective use by AAP, the plan for a door-to-door food collection naturally attracted suggestions that party was mimicking Kejriwal. However, party functionaries denied having been influenced by AAP. "We have been doing so since the days of Jan Sangh. We have a regular mechanism for raising funds from workers", said Sudhanshu Trivedi, one of the spokespersons of the party.
Sources said that "one vote, one note" campaign has been devised on the assumption that each person contributing to party's coffer will acquire a stake in its success.
Modi and other leaders who were meeting against the backdrop of its success at Congress's expense in the just-held assembly polls, drastically raised its target for the 2014 parliamentary elections, setting a target of 272-plus seats on its own.
Modi told his colleagues that an outright majority was a doable task, pointing out the difference between BJP and its main rival Congress boiled down to just 89 lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha and that the gap could be overcome by reaching out to new voters and because people were seeing BJP with its better model of governance as a superior alternative to Congress.
Party's PM candidate said that with 12 crore new voters having been added to the voter's list as compared to 2009,, BJP can not just overtake Congress's score of 206 seats in 209, but secure outright majority on its own.
Modi said BJP may have scored way down in the 2009 tally as compared to Congress, but in a good number good number of seats the party had finished second. So if the party is able to sell its "good governance and leadership" (read Modi as PM) planks properly to the electorate, BJP should be able to achieve its target of 272-plus.
The party hopes Modi's appeal will drive people to donate for it as it readies to fight the polls with the "good governance and Modi for PM' slogan. It ties in with party chief Rajnath Singh's emphasis for setting up and motivating the booth-level committees
The strategy to make voters stake-holders was started by Modi during his public rallies with the first experiment taking palce in Hyderabad.
In its preparation for the 2014 Lok sabah polls, BJP on Tuesday decided to dedicate the next 60 days in preparation and the following 60 days for campaigning with 120 days left for the poll process to begin.
The review of election results by Modi, Rajnath and other leaders saw chief of Delhi unit Vijay Goel saying that while party committed the mistake of under-estimating the AAP phenomenon in Delhi, it should not seek to compensate for that by over-estimating the appeal of the greenhorn outfit.
The party will not only working on a manifesto for the polls, but also a chargesheet against the Congress to bring out the "dark decade of Congress rule" or Congress ka kala dashak." The party will also prepare a vision document for the future to present to the voters.
BJP plans to make Narendra Modi's rally biggest in Mumbai
Maharashtra BJP plans to make Narendra Modi's Sunday rally in Mumbai the biggest political gathering in the city. Its city and state units have been working overtime for the last two weeks to make its PM candidate's 'Mahagarjana Rally' at the Metropolitan Region Development Authority grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex a grand success.
"We will ensure that this will be the biggest political rally that Mumbai has seen. I don't want to quote any numbers but lakhs will attend this rally and it will be a grand success. Special focus will be on youth of Mumbai and Maharashtra," BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told.
"Various sections of the society have been given invitations in groups. Thousands of doctors have been called to attend the rally, thousands of lawyers have been called and thousands of small and medium businessmen have been asked to be there. We know that our leader Narendra Modiji used to be a tea vendor at a railway station before he entered politics. So as a symbolic gesture, we have asked 10,000 tea vendors from various parts of Mumbai and Thane to attend this rally, these are all special invitees", Bhandari said.
"People from other parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat will also come to hear Narendra Modi . We expect thousands of vehicles to enter Mumbai this Sunday from outside the city. But we are working on making it smooth," said former BJP MLA Atul Shah.
Another BJP leader told that the party has decided to create a special section in the front rows for foreign diplomats and staff of various consulates at the MMRDA grounds so that diplomats who choose to come can get the sense of Modi's popularity in Mumbai.
The rally is scheduled to start at noon. This is the first time that Modi will be speaking with the audience in Mumbai after the recent assembly poll results gave a thumbs up to BJP. The party cadre in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra are upbeat about the rally.
Mumbai Police is taking special precautions for this rally. Security will be multi-layer and most people attending the rally will have to cross metal detectors and other checks. People on the outer periphery of the ground will be subjected to random checks. Since it's a Sunday, police will not have to alter traffic arrangements in the area but the road from Airport to MMRDA grounds in BKC will see some regulation of traffic.
