Modi rally, Jamshedpur

Jamshedpur, April 10

BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, someone who rarely interacts with the media, apologised to journalists on Thursday in Jamshedpur for the inconvenience caused to them by those attending his rally.

Modi, who had just begun his speech at the Gopal Maidan, apologised after people broke through multiple barricades to enter an enclosure meant for the media and invited "VVIPs" and had altercations with some journalists. "Help the press; do not trouble them. These are people who have to run around more than us politicians during elections," he said, after taking a 15-second pause during his introductory remarks to observe the chaos right in front of him.

After sternly asking those who were standing on chairs to sit, he addressed journalists in English: "I am sorry for that."

Nearly the first quarter of Modi's 19-minute speech to the brimming Gopal Maidan was about Jamshedpur and its labourers. "If the government's policies were in the right direction, we could have had a world-class automobile industry here," he said, adding that the villages around the city could become satellite towns. "We are a country that exports wheat and imports atta to make our rotis. We export iron ore; we import steel," he said.

He answered Congress President Sonia Gandhi's charge that the BJP is claiming that it would do magic overnight. "This country knows that, for the last 10 years, a black magician is sitting in Delhi. People lost jobs, farmers went into trouble and soldiers were beheaded," Modi charged, asking people to remove the black magician.

At one point in the speech, Modi tried to explain the contours of his government by asking the crowd, "What kind of a government do you want in Delhi?" The crowd chanted, "Modi Sarkar." Modi replied by asking, "I am not asking you whose government you want, but what kind of government you want." The crowd chanted back the same answer.

Sonia gets lukewarm response at Ramgarh

Ramgarh, April 4

Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed a poorly-attended rally in Ramgarh town on Friday, and though she never addressed Narendra Modi by name, delivered a severe criticism of his Prime Ministerial ambitions.

During most of her 11-minute speech to request votes for the party's Hazaribagh candidate Saurabh Narain Singh, Sonia matter-of-factly listed the achievements during 10 years of the UPA rule. "These things were not easy to do. The Opposition placed hurdles before us each step of the way. However, nothing will stop us from helping the poor," said Sonia.

The meeting, scheduled to begin at 12 in the afternoon, began half an hour late. However, that was no relief for the organisers, who were frantically exhorting people to walk into the barricaded venue. That the rally happened around jum'ah hours didn't help matters. By the time Sonia's chopper descended, an unenthusiastic crowd - quarter the size Rahul Gandhi had drawn for his cancelled Gumla rally of April 1 - had turned up.

"Others say they will make magic overnight. Has it come to it that one has to tell the most lies to become the Prime Minister of this great country? There are people who will go to any extent to capture the chair," said Sonia.

Sonia said that the Congress does not lie to the electorate. "We have fulfilled each promise made in our 2009 manifesto. The same will happen for our 2014 one: we do not lie; we will complete each point," she said.

Earlier in her speech, Sonia also referred to violence without making it clear whether she was talking of Narendra Modi or Maoists. "Any kind of violence is a threat to our social fabric," she said. She then went on to say that those who have a history of violence should come into the mainstream.

Keeping in mind she was talking in the coal town of Ramgarh and referred to its coal workers. "Remember that it was the government of Indira Gandhi that nationalised coal mines. The Congress has always kept in mind the people who work in mines," she said.

Though short, the speech was not without its gaffes. Sonia addressed Jharkhand Finance Minister and Congressman Rajendra Prasad Singh - present onstage - as Rajendra Pratap Singh. At one point, she used the word "vanvasi," a term preferred by the RSS when it talks about the adivasis.