In a personal and vituperative attack on BJP prime ministerial candidate, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today demanded Bharat Ratna for Jashodaben, wife of Narendra Modi, calling her "a symbol of sacrifice and pain".
"In the next 10 days, I am going to write recommending Jashodaben for the 'Bharat Ratna'. I must salute her hundred times. She is a symbol of great Indian womanhood and a great lady," Gogoi told a press conference here.
"She is a symbol of sacrifice and pain, not only in India but the entire world," he said. In the same vein, Gogoi remarked "She should actually receive Noble Prize for her silent suffering and perhaps nobody in the country having realised her pain." "Jashodaben is the real sanyasin. Modi claims that he is a sanyasi, but in reality he is a saffron man to capture power. He is a kind of 'American sanyasi'. He only knows about the Chief Minister's post. What kind of man is (now) going to be the Prime Minister of India?," Gogoi said.
Going ballistic against the BJP prime ministerial candidate, the Congress leader claimed that, "This is not an election issue but an humane issue".
While filing his nomination papers for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, Modi had for the first time mentioned his spouse's name as Jashodaben under that column. Turning to Assam's illegal migration issue, which came for reference in BJP manifesto, Gogoi said, "In Assam, population grew by 15.35 per cent between 2001 and 2011 as per the census report. "But around the same time, Gujarat's population grew by 19.12 per cent. So what does it mean?"
Infiltration, which has gone down substantially, is still a major problem but not the main problem, Gogoi said, adding that "the main issue remains the huge unemployment".
On the elections of the three seats in Assam yesterday, Gogoi said Congress will win all of them. "Of the eight seats that have gone for polls in Assam so far, we will emerge winners in all," he added.
The last phase of polling in the state will take place on April 24 for six constituencies.
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