By IANS,
Shrawasti/Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh) : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday continued to target the Congress, calling it a “gudiya” (doll) now, but Priyanka Gandhi termed his remarks so ridiculous as not worth responding to.
Modi last week was taunting the Congress as a “125-year-old budhiya (old hag)” but Sunday changed it to “gudiya”.
He told an election rally in Uttar Pradesh: “Ab mein Congress ko budhiya nahin, gudiya kahoonga. Aisa karne se kya woh jawan ho jayegi? (Now I will refer to the Congress not as an old woman, but a doll. Will this make it any younger?)”
Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, reacted: “The comments are ridiculous”. And smilingly she added: “We should be focusing on the development of the country rather that budhiya-gudiya.”
“I have better things to do, like campaigning for my mother and brother, and I do not wish to get in a tit for tat with Narendra Modi,” she said in Rae Bareli, responding to media persons’ queries. Rae Bareli is Sonia Gandhi’s constituency.
Repling to Modi’s “old woman” comment, Priyanka Gandhi Saturday asked her audience during a campaign tour in the same state if she, her brother and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi or their mother looked old.
Addressing a poll rally in Shrawasti district, about 300 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said: “I had only told the age of the Congress. If my friends in the Congress do not like my suggestion, then from now onwards I will stop saying ‘budhiya Congress’ and will instead call the party ‘gudiya Congress’.”
In an obvious reference to Priyanka Gandhi, Modi said: “I called the Congress an old woman, but some people are telling their own age.”
Reacting to Modi’s political barbs, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons in New Delhi that Modi had “lost his balance” and was “causing humiliation to himself” every time he insulted the Congress.
He referred to the “budhiya” comment and said that besides all the elderly people and women in the country, “he (Modi) should also apologise to L.K. Advani, who did not fall in the youth category.” Advani, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, is 81 years old.
Meanwhile, Modi accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of appeasing Muslims for political mileage ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
“Our prime minister is indulging in vote bank politics. It has become evident from the comments made by Manmohan Singh during a chief ministers’ meet in the recent past, in which he had said that Muslims should get first priority in reaping the benefits of the country’s national properties and resources,” said Modi.
He said if the BJP comes to power at the centre, the party will ensure that the poor, downtrodden should have the first right to national resources and properties.
Modi also accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of not being serious about the all-round development of the state.