Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, Friday, chided BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for having invoked ‘Maa Ganga’ and slammed him for trying to act like a God.
Sibal said, “Maa Ganga is very wise, she can distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly.”
“Kehte hai Ganga swachh kar dengey, yeh haath lagaengey aur Ganga saaf ho jayegi, bhagwan hai na (He (Modi) says he will clean up Ganga, he will touch with his hands and Ganga will get cleaned…he is God!),” he added.
Sibal was referring to Narendra Modi’s statement, in Varanasi that he was being called by the sacred river to serve the people on her banks.
“I bow to the purity and culture of this land. At first, I thought that the BJP has sent me here to fight the elections. Before coming here, I thought I was going to Kashi, but after I reached here I felt that Maa Ganga has called me here like a loving mother calls out to her son,” Modi said.
On his plans for Varanasi, he said would do all he can to maintain the purity of this sacred land and said that making Varanasi the spiritual capital of the country and the Ganga Purification Project would be his priority.
Sibal also hit out at Modi for speaking on the famed Ganga-Jamuni culture in the city.
“Surprising that Modi of all people talks of Ghalib and Kabir and Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb,” Sibal said.
“He (Modi) also evoked Gautam Buddha, who left his kingdom for nirvana…Modi comes to Varanasi for his kingdom,” he added.
The union minister also took the opportunity to negate the ‘Gujarat model of development’.
“Vibrant Gujarat is full of vibrant lies. The administration there is run by a man for whom distorting facts is a daily routine,” he said.
