In Lord Ram's land, Narendra Modi invokes the Hindu God; EC seeks report

Faizabad: With the portrait of Lord Ram providing the backdrop, Narendra Modi on Monday asked people "living" in the birthplace of the Hindu deity 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 also accused Congress of ignoring the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and said he has decided to give a reply to this.

"In this government of mother-son Sardar Patel's name is nowhere in the country. While four-five thousand schemes are running in the name of members of one family, including Nehru, Indira, Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul, Sardar Patel's name has been forgotten," he said.

"I have decided to give a reply to injustice done with such a legendary personality. I am going to construct the world's highest memorial of Patel in Gujarat," he said.

The Gujarat Chief Minister said he was grateful to the people, who have sent iron for the memorial from each and every village.

"If some person goes to the US, he watches the Statue of Liberty. I am going to construct Patel's memorial two times bigger than that and every citizen will take pride in it," he said.

Recalling that former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri used to say "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan", he asked, "Whether the condition of country is that of saying 'Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan'.

"In a country where Pakistanis behead our soldiers and the government in Delhi does nothing. Not only this the number of farmers, who have committed suicide in the last 10 years, is higher than the number of soldiers killed in war. More than 1.5 lakh farmers (have committed suicide)," he alleged.

"In a country where more than 1.5 lakh farmers have committed suicide, this government of mother-son duo does not want to give a reply. Their slogan is 'Mar Kisan, Mar Jawan'," Modi alleged.

He said when BJP would form the government at the Centre farmers would not be left to die. "We have said in our manifesto that this loot in the name of minimum support price will be stopped. Officers decide the MSP in air conditioned rooms, but when the farmer goes to sell his produce there is no one to purchase it", he said.

"As a result he is forced to sell his produce worth Rs one lakh to middlemen for merely Rs 20,000. We have decided that now there will be a formula and method according to which MSP will be decided," he said.

All the expenditure of the farmer would be calculated on which 50 per cent profit will be added and the amount thus reached would be the MSP, he said.

"My government will fill their (farmers) pockets with money. You tell me has this government of mother-son succeeded in bringing down inflation as promised by them. They are not replying to this as they are arrogant. They don't consider themselves accountable," he alleged.

Modi said since he considered people as supreme in democracy, he keeps coming to people asking for votes.

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.

Meanwhile, within hours of Modi addressing rally in Faizabad, the Election Commission sought a report from the district authorities about his speech and the stage backdrop.

"I have sought a report on Modi's speech and backdrop of the stage at the rally from District Magistrate, Faizabad," Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha told PTI.

Modi had earlier courted trouble when he was booked for violating electoral laws after he delivered a politically charged speech and displayed his party's symbol 'lotus' soon after voting in Gandhinagar on April 30.

He was slated to address rallies in Ambedkarnagar, Faizabad, Jaunpur, Kaushambi and Amethi districts of Uttar Pradesh on the last day of campaigning for the seventh phase.