Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday slammed Narendra Modi for attempting to "equate" himself with the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address, saying the Gujarat Chief Minister had an "immature mind."
"Narendra Modi has tried to equate himself with the Prime Minister..let him first make his own Gujarat No1 state...," Kharge said in Bangalore, ridiculing the BJP posterboy for daring Manmohan Singh for a debate on development. Kharge said Modi was among several Chief Ministers in the country, "maybe of an important state" but there were also his counterparts in equally or more important states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu who had not compared themselves with the Prime Minister.
"Modi is daydreaming of becoming the Prime Minister..let him improve his own state in terms of human development indicators" wherein Gujarat was lagging, he told reporters. Asked what was wrong as a matter of principle if a Chief Minister were to raise issues on Independence Day as Modi did, he said it had never happened before. "Let him not raise it on Independence Day. Is there any Chief Minister who has spoken about the Prime Minister (on Independence Day)?"
Kharge said veteran BJP leader LK Advani had himself (indirectly) disapproved of Modi's remarks. "A mature mind speaks that way (like Advani) but an immature mind speaks this way (like Modi)," he said. In an indirect critique, moments after Modi made his speech making a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, Advani had said that on an occasion like Independence Day, leaders should not be critical of others.
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