Modi to hold his first rally today as PM candidate

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gestures while garlanded by BJP leaders upon his arrival at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad late Friday.  Earlier Friday the BJP named Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for elections due next year, overriding doubts in the party about his polarising character.

IANS/New Delhi/Chandigarh

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is expected to target the Congress-led government on national security in his first rally today as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections.

The BJP on Friday anointed Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the national polls.

The rally will also be addressed by former army chief V K Singh, BJP leaders said.

They said Modi would speak on national security and matters concerning ex-servicemen, including challenges faced by them in seeking post-retirement employment.

His speech is likely to be watched for any promises he makes on issues concerning ex-servicemen and his attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for its handling of security issues such as incursions by China, repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan and instances of attack on Indian soldiers.

However, a day ahead of the event in Rewari, about 90km from the national capital, Haryana Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav targeted Modi while some unidentified people blackened posters of the BJP leader.

Yadav said Haryana did not have to take lessons from Modi’s model of governance in Gujarat.

“Modi should have chosen a state that lags Gujarat. Haryana is ahead of Gujarat in key fields, including social welfare schemes, especially for defence personnel and ex-servicemen,” Yadav said.

“The Gujarat government’s incentives and facilities to freedom fighters, defence personnel, ex-servicemen and their dependents pale in comparison to what the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government has done in Haryana,” he added.

Dismissing Modi’s rally as an “attempt to mislead people and undermine the dignity of sainiks (soldiers) and freedom fighters,” Yadav advised Modi to implement Haryana’s innovative schemes in Gujarat.

BJP leaders said over 100,000 people were expected to take part in the rally, being organised by the Haryana unit of the party and its ex-servicemen’s cell. They said over 20 senior retired defence personnel would attend.

There is speculation that V K Singh may join BJP at the rally.

BJP spokesperson Capt Abhimanyu, convener of the rally, yesterday said the government should have a well-defined welfare policy for defence forces.

“This will be the largest rally on issues of national security and welfare of ex-servicemen,” he said. Meanwhile, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj yesterday met veteran leader L K Advani who opposed Modi being made the prime ministerial candidate.

“No one is upset,” Swaraj told reporters after the meeting.

She along with party leaders Balbir Punj and Ananth Kumar met Advani at his residence in New Delhi. Modi was declared the party’s prime ministerial candidate on Friday despite Advani’s opposition.

Also yesterday, an upbeat BJP president Rajnath Singh asserted the party would get at least 272 seats - the halfway mark - in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“We are hopeful that with the support of our allies, the National Democratic Alliance will bag more than 272 seats and come to power in the next parliamentary elections,” he said at a function to inaugurate the new Bombay Bullion Association headquarters.

Attacking the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Singh said the Congress-led coalition has pushed the country into an economic mess.

He said considering the strength of the economy during the NDA rule under (prime minister) Atal Behari Vajpayee, it was expected that the country would become an economic power by 2020.

However, in the past ten years, the country’s economic condition has been destroyed and the people are reeling under heavy inflation, the BJP chief said.

Modi can  apply for visa like anyone else: US

IANS/Washington

Narendra Modi would still have to apply for a visa “like any other applicant,” the US said after the Gujarat chief minister was anointed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate.

“There’s no change in our longstanding visa policy,” State Department spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters on Friday, while declining to comment on the BJP’s announcement on Modi.

“Well, I’m not going to comment, as I don’t think we ever do, on domestic Indian politics,” she said. “These are decisions for the Indian people to make, certainly not for me to make judgments on one way or the other.”

But Modi “is welcome to apply for a visa and await a review like any other applicant,” Harf said, adding, “that review will be, of course, grounded in US law. And I just am not going to speculate about what the outcome of that review might be.”

Asked if there was a problem relating to Modi’s visa when several other politicians from various political parties could come to the US freely, she repeated: “Again, we’re not involved in domestic Indian politics.”

“If Mr Modi would like to apply for a visa and await a review like any other applicant, he’s certainly free to do so.”

Modi has not applied for a US visa since 2005 when he was denied a diplomatic visa for his alleged inaction in controlling the 2002 Godhra riots. In addition, the B-1/B-2 visa that had previously been granted to him was also revoked.

The action was taken under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes any foreign government official who was responsible or “directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom” ineligible for the visa.

While there has been no change in the US position officially, the US business has been warming up to the Gujarat leader and the issue is being debated both in the administration and among the lawmakers.

India won’t tolerate a divisive leader: Nitish

The country will not tolerate a “divisive” leader, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said yesterday, a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party anointed Gujarat leader Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. “The People of the country will not tolerate or accept a leader whose idea and policy is divisive,” Kumar said in Patna. He described BJP’sd decision to announce Modi as its prime ministerial candidate as “Vinash kale vipreet buddhi (When we face difficult times, our thinking gets warped). We had sensed it three months ago that the BJP will name him its PM candidate and that’s why we ended our (Janata Dal-United) alliance with the BJP,” Kumar said. The JD-U snapped ties with the BJP in Bihar on June 16 this year after Modi was made BJP’s campaign chief for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.