New Delhi, May 26: Hitting back at Narendra Modi for his criticism of the UPA, Congress today said the soul of Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels seemed to have entered the “frustrated” Gujarat Chief Minister and accused him of crossing the “Laxmanrekha”.
“Gujarat Chief Minister is a frustrated man. It seems the soul of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister during the Nazi regime of Hitler in Germany, has gone inside him. He has crossed all limits.
“The kind of unparliamentary language he has used against the UPA government cannot be imagined from any Chief Minister,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.
He accused Modi of crossing the “Laxmanrekha” for “cheap popularity” and violating the dignity of politics. Addressing the national executive of BJP in Mumbai, Modi had on Friday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing the Centre of inflicting “maximum damage” on the country's federal structure and opining that UPA government should not last “even a moment longer”.
Tewari in particular took strong exception to Modi's remarks on Government-Army Chief Gen V K Singh standoff. Modi had said, “The Prime Minister and the Defence Minister are of Congress. Still, the government is pitted against the Army. What compulsion is this?” The Congress spokesperson said it was not expected that Modi will take politics to this level and drag even the Army into it.
“How does he forget, he belongs to a party, whosegovernment had dismissed the Navy chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat,” Tewari said asking Modi to look into his own
courtyard before levelling allegations on others.
Tewari also read out a reported statement of a Gujarat minister Jainarayan Vyas saying that while Modi was making “baseless” allegations against the Centre in Mumbai, his colleague in Ahmedabad had said the central and the state government cannot be seen separately and the central government had also come to help when required.
“Either the Gujarat Chief Minister was speaking the truth or his government's official spokesperson in the state,” Tewari said.
Asked about media reports quoting Modi for describing the UPA government as Nirmal Baba's durbar, Tewari said he does not know about the Babas but Modi is “definitely influenced by Goebbels Baba”.
Meanwhile, AICC in-charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed took a jibe at Modi on Twitter saying, “Narendra Modi says UPA is like Nirmal Baba's durbar and forgets his and BJP's own Baba Bangaru Laxman who is still in jail for taking bribe.” Without naming Ramdev, Ahmed also said, “Narendra Modi also forgets another BABA sponsored by RSS and BJP who tries to run away wearing women's clothes during tough times.”
Tewari said BJP stands “splintered”, while Ahmed on the microblogging site wondered how Gadkari and Modi could work shoulder to shoulder for their party when BJP President says the party will work for minorities and the Gujarat Chief Minister “wants to eliminate them”.
