Upping the war of words on the Indian Premier League matches being moved out of India, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley on Monday hit out at the Centre.
Upping the war of words on the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches being moved out of India, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley on Monday hit out at the Centre, saying the move was “a confession of failure by the UPA government on the security front.”
The party also declared its slogan for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. After ‘India Shining’ in 2004, the slogan this time will be ‘Saksham Neta, Nirnayak Sarkar (Competent leader, decisive government)’. Jaitley announced the slogan at a seminar of the party’s media cell in Ahmedabad on Monday, which he addressed.
Jaitley took a dig at home minister P Chidambaram, saying: “Chidambaram has two-and-a-half-months left and he should concentrate on his job. When he was finance minister, our investments were not safe. Now that he is home minister, we are not safe.”
The political melee began after chief minister Narendra Modi on Sunday described the
shifting of the IPL abroad as a “national shame.” Responding to this charge, Chidambaram on Monday said that most people in India thought the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat were a national shame.
“What the chief minister said is that the IPL is a game and it should be held in India since it is a domestic tournament. Other countries have been hosting international-level events, but this is the first time India will be hosting a domestic event outside the country,” Jaitley said.
He said that shifting the tournament to another country would send out a signal to the world that India was not a safe destination. “India has been bracketed with Pakistan and the image of the country has been adversely impacted,” Jaitley said.
Earlier in the day, responding to this allegation, Chidambaram said: “Perhaps he has forgotten that several leaders of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) have also expressed the view that the IPL should be postponed until after the elections.”
Politics have overtaken the issue of the IPL matches clashing with the Lok Sabha elections. While the Centre said it cannot spare enough security forces for the high-profile event, BJP-ruled states have voiced a willingness to host matches.
Jaitley said the Commonwealth Games next year will also see large congregations and asked how the government will ensure their security. “There are crowds at other events too — cultural, religious and social. So saying that crowds will lead to insecurity is an invalid argument,” he said.
The media workshop on Monday was attended by around 150 BJP workers from across the state. State party president Purshottam Rupala; state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas; party spokesperson IK Jadeja; convenor of the election literature committee, Vinay Sahastrabuddhe; cricket commentator Suresh Mashruwala; and head of the state IT cell, Shahi
Ranjan Yadav addressed the workshop. “The party is going to conduct extensive information technology-based campaigning in the forthcoming elections,” a party worker present at the event said. “Our target areas include lakhs of internet and mobile phone users in the state. Blogs, websites, caller tunes, screensavers, video footage etc will also be covered,” a party leader said.
Nikunj Soni contributed to this article
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