Durg: BJP`s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday slammed Congress for not having respect for singer Lata Mangeshkar, and said she was entitled to air her views.
Speaking at a campaign rally at Durg in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Modi said, "Lata Mangeshkar had only said that Modi should become the Prime Minister. Does she not have the right to express her feelings?"
Mangeshkar, at a function in Pune, had endorsed Modi for PM. Following which, Mumbai Congress chief Janardan Chandurkar said that the Bharat Ratna given to her should be taken away.
"Congress is so arrogant that it doesn`t respect even a legendary singer like Lata Mangeshkar," Modi said here.
‘CBI is Congress`s cure-all’
Narendra Modi today also said that Congress was using CBI as "medicine" for every problem that afflicted it.
"Congress is in power in the Centre not because of its work... With CBI`s support it is in power. It uses the investigation agency to threaten its allies... CBI is the medicine, the best remedy for problems of Congress," Modi said at a rally in Durg city.
"They also used this medicine against me, expecting that I would be cowed down. But Sonia-ji, I belong to the land of Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi. We never bow down before false things," he said, hitting out directly at the Congress president.
While Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh gave the account of all the work done by him in the state, Congress did not, because it had not done anything, said Modi.
"People come from Delhi but they never give answers about inflation, unemployment, crime against women, killing of jawans on border, Indo-China conflict," Modi said, referring to recent visits to the poll-bound state by Sonia Gandhi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In 2009 elections, Congress promised to control price rise in 100 days after forming government at the Centre but failed to do so. "But Madam Sonia, PM and Shehzade never talk about this," Modi said.
"Being a mother, at least Soniaji should have realised the hunger of people and have spoken a few words on this during her visit here," he said.
