In Lord Ram's land, Modi invokes the Hindu God to woo voters

Faizabad (UP): With the portrait of Lord Ram providing the backdrop, Narendra Modi today asked people living in the “land of Ram” to teach Congress and those who support it a lesson for not fulfilling electoral promises. Modi skirted any reference to his party's pet theme of building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, which is part of the district and epicentre of Ram Mandir movement, but made several references to Lord Ram to exhort people to defeat Congress, SP and BSP and support BJP.“This is the land of Lord Ram where people believed in ‘pran jaye par vachan na jaye' (one may lose life but cannot break promise). Can you pardon those who broke their promises?,” the BJP prime ministerial candidate said a rally, referring to the ruling party's unfulfilled promise of providing 10 crore jobs to people.He also took on SP, which is in power in UP, and Mayawati-led BSP, saying they are enemies in Lucknow but friends in Delhi.“They save the government of ‘maa-beta (Sonia-Rahul)'. The Congress saves them from CBI. It protects netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) from CBI. They believe in you scratch my back, I scratch yours.“I, from this land of Lord Ram, promise you that I will fight corruption my whole life. Where do I get the strength to speak this? I have lived this my whole life,” he said. The SP and BSP governments spend their time in settling scores with each other. “Law and order is so bad that people prefer buying guns to providing medical care to their parents and good education to their children,” he said.Modi urged people to elect as many BJP candidates in UP as they can as it was necessary for a strong government at the Centre. UP has 80 Lok Sabha seats.Reminding people of the “weak” UPA government, he said people are not happy if their local police official is supine and nor are students happy if their teacher is not effective. “How can then a country of 125 cr people be happy if their government is weak. Do you a limp government? You choose BJP candidates from all 80 seats in UP and I will give you a strong India,” he said.Touching on his upbringing in a poor family, he tried to touch a chord with the people of the largely impoverished state, saying he knew what poverty was and would do everything in his capacity to help them come out of it. As Modi spoke, chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram' came from the audience.“I bow to the pious land of Lord Ram. Mahatma Gandhi always defined good governance as Ram Rajya, where nobody must be aggrieved and even a ‘dhobi' (washer man) should get justice,” Modi said at the start of his nearly hour-long speech.He said for the last 60 years, the country has experienced “the politics of destruction”. “Now we need politics of integration, a healthy politics which can create communal harmony among the masses.”Attacking Congress and Samajwadi Party and BSP leaders, he said, “For bad governance at centre, the government of mother and son is responsible. For bad governance in Uttar Pradesh, the governments of son and father and sister are responsible”.“Congress manifesto is ‘dhoka' (betrayal) as Congress has always ditched the people. In 2009, Congress promised to deliver jobs to 10 crore people, I ask from the people present here in this meeting how many of them, or their relatives, or their neighbours or their community members got job,” he asked the audience.“On the pious land of Lord Ram will you forgive those who broke promises?”During Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of six years, 6.5 crore jobs were created, he claimed “When Gujarat is so developed why not UP.... Son and father should stop hooliganism in the state. In one year five thousand murders have been reported. Father and son are doing nothing to end this business of murders and hooliganism,” Modi said hitting out at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “I want to make UP like Gujarat. A government under which people should feel safe,” he said.Targeting Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, he said, “What type of government do you want in Delhi? A government which runs on fake oxygen and with remote control of mother and son or you need a powerful government which can eliminate all ills.”