Dehradun: Narendra Modi on Sunday mocked Rahul Gandhi's advocacy of Lokpal Bill, saying if his heart really aches for it, why Congress was not implementing Lokayukta Act brought in by the previous BJP government in Uttarakhand.
Modi was addressing his maiden rally in the state after being chosen BJP's prime ministerial candidate here at the parade ground. In a reference to Rahul Gandhi, who held a press conference in the national capital on Saturday and appealed all the political parties to shed their differences over the Bill, Modi said why the Congress leader was being so vocal about the issue when his party was silent in Uttarakhand.
"A Congress leader was yesterday talking about Lokpal at a press conference. My question is how can the leader of a party which has shied away from the creation of the anti-corruption watchdog so far be so vocal on the issue. I want to ask him if his heart really aches for Lokpal why hasn't his party allowed the implementation of the Lokyukta Act in Uttarakhand passed by the state Assembly during BJP chief minister Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri's tenure?" he said.
Drafted at a time when Anna Hazare's agitation for a Lokpal Bill was at its peak, Uttarakhand Lokayukta Bill was passed unanimously by the state Assembly on November 1, 2011 after Khanduri took over the reins in the state for a second time in September, 2011.
Though given presidential assent after a two year wait in September this year, the Act is yet to be implemented in Uttarakhand as Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna wants to bring it into force only after certain amendments.
Uttarakhand Lokayukta Act brings under its ambit the chief minister, ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats among others. Taking on the Congress, Modi said be it the government in Delhi or Dehradun they are "detached" from people with absolutely no concern for them.
Asking people to stop experimenting with new governments, he said lack of political stability had caused Uttarakhand and Jharkhand to lag behind Chhattisgarh, which stuck to BJP rule for years and is now on way to coming on a par with the most developed states in the country.
"I think though created together, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand are way behind Chhattisgarh when it comes to development. You changed many governments and many leaders. My suggestion is to you to stop experimenting now and have faith in the BJP. Things are bound to change," he said.
Accusing Congress of cheating the people of the state, he claimed Vajpayee-led government had given a ten-year industrial package to the state whose tenure was reduced by the UPA.
The Gujarat Chief Minister also launched a scathing attack on the Uttarakhand government for "hounding" yoga guru Ramdev "unnecessarily". If the Congress government in Uttarakhand spent even half of its energy it is "wasting" over investigating Ramdev on rehabilitating victims of mid-June calamity, their fortunes would have turned around, he said.
"It is surprising that the Congress government in the state was lodging a new case against Ramdev every day," Modi said. The BJP leader was making an oblique reference to 96 cases of alleged gross violation of land laws and stamp duty evasion lodged in quick succession against the yoga guru by Bahuguna government recently.
Modi also accused the Bahuguna government of being "callous" as it did not allow him to visit affected areas and "share the pain" of disaster victims when he visited the state during June.
"I came running to Uttarakhand to share the pain of the victims of the unprecedented tragedy but political callousness came in my way, I was not allowed to visit the affected areas," he said.
"Politics should be a means to bail out people in times of crisis and not to deepen their pain. When Kucch was hit by an earthquake I accepted help from every possible quarter including even Pakistan," he said.
