Attacking the UPA on alleged delay in executing Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru,Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the government was indulging in "votebank politics" and "hanging Guru does not suit its interests". "The Congress-led UPA is indulging in votebank politics and hanging Guru does not suit its interests," Modi said,a day after Rahul Gandhi defended his party saying Afzal will be hanged when his turn comes. "Out of 29 persons who are on death row,cases of 26 have been processed and only three cases including that of Afzal Guru are pending,Modi told an NDA "Maha Rally" at PUDA ground here,which witnessed a major show of strength with party stalwarts and alliance leaders attending it. Rahul Gandhi while addressing a rally at Mohali in Punjab last evening had said Afzal Guru was twenty second on the list of those to be hanged. "There is a huge line and there are others before him. When his number (turn) comes,he will be hanged." Modi launched a blistering attack,saying "During Congress regime there is a huge line for everything,be it for getting ration cards,gas connections. Congress General Secretary (Rahul) says Afzal is in queue. Never before we have heard that even for hanging a person,there is a queue. This is unfortunate for the country". Countering Rahul Gandhi's overtures to woo Sikhs during his election rallies in Punjab yesterday,Modi said if the party is so concerned about the community then why had the then Congress regime shown "haste" in carrying out death sentence of a Sikh youth,who was charged with the killing of the then Army chief General Vaidya in the 1980s. "The Sikh youth's family had submitted a mercy petition after he was awarded death sentence by the Supreme Court,but your (Rahul's) family's government took just 15 minutes to decide in the Cabinet to hang him and 24 hours later he was hanged," he said. The BJP leader also raked up the Quattrocchi issue,saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that a person against whom no crime has been established cannot be harassed unnecessarily. "I want to question the Prime Minister that why in the midst of elections,he was worried about Quattrocchi being harassed and cleared his file,but (still) remains silent when lakhs of our Tamil brothers are going through tough time in Sri Lanka?" Modi asked. "Pranab Mukherjee was sent to Sri Lanka,but he spent just four hours there and came back without any concrete results. I want to ask the Prime Minister why you are silent when lakhs of Tamils are passing through a difficult time?" Modi said referring to the unrest in the island nation. Taking a dig at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi,Modi said he has not seen a leader who goes on indefinite fast,"but starts it after breakfast in the morning and ends it even before lunch time". With UPA hard-selling the growth in agriculture sector and making it a poll issue,Modi claimed that it was for the first time after the then Lal Bahadur Shastri-led regime that "We have had to import foodgrains,a scenario which is just the opposite when our stocks were surplus when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister". Modi also lashed out at the UPA for allegedly putting into cold storage the issue of inter-linking of rivers. "In Gujarat,my government has linked 20 rivers and now throughout the year,water flows in them and farmers are happy as they get adequate water for their fields. If NDA comes to power,we will go ahead with the programme to link rivers nationally," he said.
