Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi speaks after inaugurating a hospital owned by a Muslim trust at Balasinore town in Ahmedabad on Sunday
A day after the Prime Minister alleged that the BJP is changing India's history and geography, a combative Narendra Modi today hit back accusing the Congress of altering the country's geography by allowing partition and history by neglecting our heroes and eulogising only the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Mr Modi, who is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after inaugurating a hospital in Kheda in Gujarat, which is run primarily by the minority community.
"Mr Prime Minister, I am aware that it is not in your hands what you should say or not say. But the country wants to know who changed the geography of India? The village in which you were born was a part of Hindustan. Today it is not. Who changed the geography? Who broke this country into pieces?" Mr Modi said.
Dr Singh was born on September 26, 1932 in Gah, a remote village, now in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Mr Modi charged that it is the Congress which committed the "sin" of dividing India into two parts.
"You say we are changing the geography. Every so often China creates problems at our borders. It has captured hundreds of square kilometres of our territory. Who changed this geography? It was changed during Congress rule," Mr Modi said.
He further alleged that the Centre wants to change the route of the Sabarmati-Dandi heritage road that is to be constructed to mark the salt satyagraha underaken by Mahatma Gandhi.
"Six months back I received a letter from PMO that the path be shifted 30 kilometres away... You have abandoned Gandhi and now you want to leave the path too," he said.
Mr Modi also attacked the PM and the Congress on the issue of history. He charged that Sardar Patel was given the Bharat Ratna 41 years after his death while Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi were given the award when they were alive.
He alleged that the First War of Independence which took place in 1857- "and in which Hindus and Muslims fought together"- is called a Mutiny in Congress' ideology.
The freedom fighters incarcerated in the Cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are now forgotten, he said.
"Who has done this work of making people forget history?" he said.
Mr Modi said while Sardar Patel was given the Bharat Ratna with Rajiv Gandhi, even in the case of BR Amdedkar, the award was given 33 years after Independence.
"Why was this done? Is this not playing with history? Who has done this?" Mr Modi said, adding that the Congress was all along busy eulogising one family, a reference to the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Mr Modi also said that "Lal, Bal, Pal"- the trio of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal - have been forgotten by the Congress.
Maintaining that the BJP respects all great heroes of the nation, Mr Modi said, "Who is related to which party is not our concern. The party or the community to which one belongs does not matter as long as the person has made sacrifices for the country. We do not divide legacies... We stand for being with everybody and striving for everybody's development."
He said tomorrow (November 11) is the 125th birth anniversary of great modern educationist Abul Kalam Azad and freedom fighter J B Kriplani but the Congress is not celebrating the day.