Criticising Manmohan Singh for saying that the "toughest" moment as Prime Minister was when he was attempting to push through the Indo-US nuclear deal,BJP firebrand leader Narendra Modi asked him whether he was not worried during the Mumbai terror attack. "I want to ask him that when hundreds were killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack for seven days was he not worried?" asked Modi,addressing an election rally in Jorhat. He also said the Prime Minister's reported statement that Muslims have the first right to India's resources was a case of vote bank politics. "The Prime Minister in a written statement has said that Muslims have the first right to India's resources. Is this not vote bank politics? Is it not an insult to the Constitution?" "This is a most despicable statement of vote bank politics. Do you feel the Prime Minister is your representative? He has failed to provide security and basic amenities to the people of Assam that he represents in Parliament," the Gujarat Chief Minister said. "Our prime ministerial candidate L K Advani says it's the poor of the country irrespective of religion,caste,language or region have the first right to the nation's wealth. This is the language of development," Modi said,adding,"Our leader clubs all Indians together,but Congress sees them as groups." Modi said that there was trouble in Assam because of vote bank politics. He also targeted Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan for his reported comment that Bangladeshi infiltrators be given Indian citizenship with voting rights to fight elections,become MPs,MLAs and chief ministers. "Is it not the Prime Minister's responsibility to oppose Ram Vilas?" he asked. Modi also quoted a Union Minister as reportedly saying,"If Modi continues to speak against the Congress he will go to jail." "I am ready to go to jail. If the Election Commission is neutral it will take note of the minister's threat to me." He claimed that the Congress have been in power for five years,but have been unable to lift a finger against him. "I stand for truth and honesty," he claimed. Referring to law and order in Assam,Modi pointed out that under the Tarun Gogoi government there have been four bomb blasts in one week. "What kind of government is this?" The BJP leader also criticised the Gogoi government for "failing" to provide drinking water in Jorhat town when the river Brahmaputra was just 10 km away. "What more can be an example of a government's failure?" Stating that in Gujarat when sometimes there was no rain for five years at a stretch and no river like the Bramhaputra,he claimed,"I have provided clean drinking water from Madhya Pradesh to 8000 villages by laying 1400 km pipes in 700 days." He also said that Jorhat,the first tea garden in the country,was started in Jorhat 200 years ago. "But the Union government has done nothing. No research for Assam tea to be globally competitive was conducted."
