| GEO World | | I can teach Congress how to tackle Pakistan: Modi | Updated at: 0554 PST, Friday, February 27, 2009
 NEW DELHI: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has blasted the Centre for its “lame response” to terrorism and said he could teach the ruling government a thing or two on how to deal with Pakistan.
Addressing a large rally in Pimpalgaon Baswant, about 30 km from Nashik, Mr. Modi, who is in charge of the Maharashtra election campaign, questioned Pakistan’s temerity in asking 30 questions related to the terror strike on Mumbai.
“Give me those questions, I will teach the Congress to answer them,” he said to much applause. “These men were trained well, they had sophisticated weapons and they came from the sea. Was this not a war? But still the Centre is writing letters to Pakistan,” he said.
Averring that he had never seen such a “weak government,” Mr. Modi said that India went and pleaded before the United States asking it to do something after the Mumbai attacks.
Mr. Modi launched his campaign earlier in the day at Gondia in Vidarbha. “Pakistan has to be given a straight answer in its own terms and in a language it understands,” he said. He asked the crowd if it thought the Congress government was capable of dealing with terrorism. The government was not even willing to take an aggressive stand against Pakistan for fear of losing its vote-bank, he said. The government was misusing the services chiefs and firing salvos from their shoulder, he added.
Castigating the Congress ‘vote-bank politics’, Mr. Modi said no country could function in this manner. He criticised the Congress and said it would be difficult to find five things it had done for the welfare of the people. “The only thing which stands out is the withdrawal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act [POTA],” he said.
Mr. Modi also referred to the insecurity spread by terrorism and said there was “no use having all the wealth and comforts if the people you love don’t return home.”
He also slammed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and held her responsible for the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code especially in the case of attempted rape where an arrest need not be made now. “If a woman complains to the police, they will write to the accused and ask him if he is guilty,” Mr. Modi said, adding that this was a great insult to the women of this country. |  |
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