Good times are coming, says Modi in dig at PM

Narendra Modi interacts with delegates during the 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi yesterday.

IANS/New Delhi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi yesterday took a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said the premier’s statement that there was no need to despair and good times lie ahead would certainly ring true in a few months - with the general elections.

Modi, speaking at the 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the annual gathering of overseas Indians, here elicited loud applause and laughter and even a few whistles from the audience at Vigyan Bhavan when he said: “We may have to wait a few months, but I sincerely feel that good times are coming.”

Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, who got a round of applause before he got up to speak and while he was being introduced, said: “The prime minister had said a good thing during his speech here yesterday that there is no need to despair and very good times are to come.”

He paused waiting for the laughter and clapping to die down, and then said smiling: “I don’t need to say anything more... we may have to wait a few months, four or six. But I sincerely feel that good times are coming.”

This was Modi’s first public reaction, though oblique, to Singh’s comments at a press conference last week that “it will be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the prime minister.”

The hall was packed, with many standing in the aisles, when Modi was speaking.

The Gujarat chief minister, who was mobbed by the participants after the speech, referred to two major events in history in which overseas Indians had come together to support the country - during the 1975 emergency and the 1998 nuclear test by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.

He said with the general elections round the corner, he was seeing renewed enthusiasm among Indians abroad.

“I am observing with the 2014 elections that the Indians abroad are very enthusiastic and keen to contribute,” said Modi.

On corruption, Modi said the debate in the country is on “post-corruption” measures - like Janlokpal and Lokpal - after corruption has taken place.

“The requirement is that there should not be any corruption, the focus should be on that,” he said. He cited the Gujarat experience of putting state policy online in “black and white” as an effective measure to tackle corruption.

“Corruption can be easily tackled, it only needs resolve. The focus should not be on the sickness, but on health and prevention,” he said.

“We Indians abroad are looking for change. We are all supporters of Modi,” said a participant from the US.

The other chief ministers who spoke were Oommen Chandy of Kerala, Haryana’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Meghalaya’s Mukul Sangma.

Sangma, whose turn came after Modi, saw the crowds leaving the hall as he was speaking. But unfazed he gave a veiled rejoinder to Modi’s reference of good times ahead, saying that better days are sure to come as the government has laid a strong foundation with the steps it has taken through Right to Education, Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).