Narendra Modi News

Friday, February 20, 2009

Modi and the missuses

AHMEDABAD: Chief minister Narendra Modi is known to have a strong following among women. He also knows how much influence the woman of the house wields. Graduating from mahila sammellans in the rural setting, Modi is now hosting wives of IAS, IPS and IFS officers at Gandhinagar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting is being organised by wife of chief secretary D Rajagopalan. In many cases it was husbands who got the call and were asked to send their wives to the meet on Friday. But of course the meet might end up with officers like Geetha Johri, Anita Karwal, Sunaina Tomar attending it too, because they happen to be wives of IPS, or IFS officers.

COUNTDOWN BEGINS
Ticket aspirants in the BJP are keeping their fingers crossed. For, starting February 20, central observers of the party will fan out to different districts and collect recommendations on candidates for upcoming Lok Sabha polls from party workers. Incidentally, BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is also visiting Ahmedabad on Friday -- the day when observers will meet workers for short-listing candidates for Ahmedabad (East) seat. "To make the entire exercise constructive, we have told party workers that they are free to recommend names. But they are also told oppose names suggested by others," said a senior BJP leader.

Gujarat government may have finally recognised the competence of Ravi Saxena, an IAS bureaucrat of 1978 batch, by appointing him as state health secretary, a powerful post responsible for controlling the mighty health establishment. However, the officialdom seems puzzled. Despite several reminders, the Central government is not letting him go to take up the new assignment. He took over a Central job, of development commissioner, Kandla SEZ, after feeling sidelined under the Narendra Modi government for years together. But finding that work with Modi could be more exciting, he decided to prematurely returned to the state fold.
"Though he has been appointed state health secretary, the Centre is strangely not clearing the file relieving him", a senior official known to be close to Saxena complained. Result -- health remains a parentless department. There is nobody to monitor what is happening at Modasa, where people have died due to Hepatitis-B. Even health commissioner Amarjit Singh, second in command in the department, is awaiting an appointment in Delhi.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Advani echoes Modi's line, hints at local link to 26/11

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's statement on local support in the Mumbai terror attacks on Tuesday found support in senior BJP leader L K Advani.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate questioned the Mumbai police chief ruling out 'local links' in Mumbai terror attacks.

"It is clear that the planning happened for a year and they visited the places they attacked on November 26. It is not possible that there are no local links in 26/11," said said L K Advani, Leader of Opposition.

"It is a well-planned conspiracy. I was also surprised to hear the Mumbai police chief's comment that all 26/11 terrorists are accounted for, that they are either dead or in custody. And there is no local link. How can they give that certificate?' added Advani.

The Congress had condemned the remarks as anti-national and one that toed Pakistan's line.

Rahul takes on Modi, says incentives only for Nano not the poor

Surat (PTI): Irked by advertisements blaming the Centre for the plight of diamond industry, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a frontal attack on Narendra Modi Government, accusing it of providing incentives worth crores of rupees to Tata's Nano project while turning away from workers affected by recession.

Advertisements had appeared in the local newspapers of Surat on Saturday coinciding with Rahul's visit saying that the Central Government has done nothing for the diamond industry which has over the years earned the government crore of rupees.

The advertisements issued in the name of unemployed diamond workers pointing figures at Rahul Gandhi, who was scheduled to meet diamond workers in the city, had said that those coming from Delhi should stop the show of " false sympathy" to the diamond workers and do something for them.

Gandhi who is on a three-day visit to Gujarat reacted sharply to the advertisements after meeting the diamond workers. "It is one thing to give an advertisement and totally different thing to do some work for them", Rahul told reporters.

"On the one hand Gujarat Government has provided incentives of crores of rupees for Nano project but it has turned away from the diamond workers. It seems state government is not ready to spend money on poor," Rahul said.