Pathankot:
Virtually launching the BJP's campaign for the 2014 elections, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said there was a "dual power centre" in the Congress-led UPA government and time had come to get rid of them.
Addressing a rally for the first time after becoming the BJP campaign chief, Mr Modi said, "There are two bosses in the country and we do not know who of the two is genuine. It has become difficult to identify that who is running the country," he said, apparently referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
"Your (people's) future is not safe in their hands...we cannot play with the future of our youth," he said, Speaking of the rapid slide in the rupees' value against dollar, Mr Modi said Congress was competing with rupees as to who could fall more.
He also took a dig at the advertising campaign run by the UPA government on various TV channels on the flagship Bharat Nirman programme to highlight its achievements.
"The advertisement said 'bharat ke nirman pe haq hai mera' (I have a right to India's development). I say 'bharat nirman pe shaq hai mera' (I have doubt over India's development)," Mr Modi said.
He said the Prime Minister must explain as to what he did after Sarabjeet Singh died in Pakistan on May 2, after he was fatally attacked by inmates in prison.
"He (the Prime Minister) should explain as to why his government was treating the then Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to a lavish lunch in Jaipur within days of the incident and weeks after Indian soldiers were beheaded by Pakistanis near Line of Control," Mr Modi said.
He said he was saddened by the plight of the people of flood-ravaged Uttarakhand and said the people of the country were behind those who had been devastated by the natural tragedy.
Mr Modi, who had visited the flood affected areas of Uttarakhand yesterday, reached out to the people affected by the calamity, saying, "I felt the grief after listening to painful tales of survivors rescued from Uttarakhand."
Talking about Kashmir, Mr Modi said there was a need to "heal the wounds" of Kashmiris and connect its aspiring youths with the national mainstream for the development of the state.
Often described by critics as a divisive figure, Mr Modi sought to portray himself as a leader who unifies, saying he would work for bringing parties and hearts together.
Invoking former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he said the task he left incomplete would be pursued by BJP if voted to power.
He slammed the Congress over the Kashmir policy, economy and national security, saying it had failed on all fronts.
"Vajpayee had sought to win over the heart of Kashmir with compassion, love and dialogue...Had he been elected to power in 2004, he would have succeeded in his Kashmir policy," Mr Modi said.
Kashmiri youths were aspiring for development and progress and they needed to be connected with the national mainstream, he said.
"The youths in Kashmir Valley want to be part of development. Guns can spill blood but will do no good to one's life," Mr Modi told the Sankalp rally on the occasion of party founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's 60th death anniversary.