BJP President Amit Shah was in Gujarat on Sunday to flag off his party’s gaurav yatra, ahead of the crucial assembly elections in the state. Shah had to face anger of Patidar youths, who chanted anti-BJP slogans and disrupted his speech at his function in Anand.
Addressing a gathering later, Shah accused three generations of the Congress party of having “insulted” Gujarat.
“Rahul Gandhi comes here and seeks answer from us as to what has the BJP done for the state. We are seeking an answer from you (the Congress) for injustices that the three generations of your rule did to us,” the BJP president was quoted by PTI.
“While the first generation of Congress insulted Sardar Patel by not giving him his due recognition and Bharat Ratna, Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did injustice to Morarji Desai,” Shah alleged.
“The third generation of (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have done injustice to Narendra Modi, and Gujarat seeks answer for that,” he said.
Shah accused the Congress of doing “injustice” to Gujarat, generation after generation, and said that in the upcoming Assembly election, the people of the state will make fun of those who “mock Gujarat’s development model”.
Many analysts were quick to point out the fact that how Shah had managed to avoid commenting on the development in Gujarat during the BJP’s 22 years of rule.
Journalist Swati Chaturvedi wrote, “Err, Gujarat voted for you for 20 yrs what did you do Mr Shah?”
Commentator Ashok Swain dubbed it a clever tactic to invoke ‘fake’ Gujarati pride when development in the state had ‘gone crazy.’ He wrote, “When ‘Development’ has gone Crazy, time for fake Gujarati ‘Asmita’!”
Swain’s comments were in reference to the viral social media campaign in Gujarat against the alleged misrule of BJP in the last 22 years. Through the campaign ‘Development Gone Crazy,’ the BJP’s rival, mainly Congress party, has sought to highlight the state’s abysmal performance on development front. Since the launch this campaign earlier this month, the saffron party appears to have gone on the back foot. Many analysts suspect that to avoid the conversation about its track record on governance in Gujarat, Shah and his senior colleagues may prefer to raise other mundane issues primarily to divert people’s attention from development.