NEW DELHI:
10 June 2013

The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has said that by declaring Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as chairman of its Election Campaign Committee for the 2014 polls, a move considered just short of making him the prime ministerial candidate, the Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), has unfolded its real face once again.

SDPI national president A. Sayeed in a statement said that Narendra Modi has been a symbol of communalism and capitalism, which his decade old rule or rather misrule in Gujarat has very well revealed, and BJP backed by fascist RSS steadily stands behind him.

Sayeed said the 2002 Gujarat pogrom wherein thousands of Muslims were massacred in the state under Narendra Modi’s rule is a big blot on him which can never be washed away. The aura of development in Gujarat is all phoney and fake as the rural poverty in the state is 51 per cent. There is no real development in Gujarat but with his cocky attitude Modi impresses that he is all-knowing and tries to paint a rosy picture to befool people, he added.

He pointed out that on the contrary vital statics about Gujarat speak otherwise as the living standards of the common people was still “abysmal”. The test of every system is whether the standard of living of the masses is rising or not. Modi was no doubt successful in projecting an image of ‘Gujarat Shining’ under him. But the stark reality is very different. No doubt Modi has given huge concessions to big industrial houses, giving them cheap electricity, land, etc. and has built roads, etc. But what about the standard of living of the masses, Sayeed questioned?

The statement stated the figures about Gujarat are very dismal. They include:
1. Child malnutrition at 48 per cent in Gujarat is higher than the national average, far higher than the poorest African sub Saharan countries of Somalia and Ethiopia where the rate is about 33 per cent;
2. The infant mortality rate in Gujarat is 48 per thousand, which is the 10th worst in India;
3. More than a third of Gujarat’s adult men have a body mass index of less than 18.5, the 7th worst in India;
4. Gujarat has a high maternal mortality rate;
5. Education, health and income levels in Gujarat is placed after 8 other Indian states.

It is a sad day for one of the oldest civilisation in the world that India is seeing the elevation of person accused of supporting a large scale massacre in 2002. He is so arrogant that he has not even bothered to acknowledge the brutality and sufferings. His arrogance is derogatory to the growth of our great nation. History will never forgive the supporters of this man who does not even have a family of his own and he seeks to rule the Great Indian family of a 100 billion. His speeches are taunting and far from being civilised. Does this man love anyone other than himself? Do we really have no one better than him, well if yes, then it is a rather dark prediction for this nation, the statement added.

Sayeed said that it is a pity that LK Advani, the father figure of BJP, seems to feel slighted by the very party that he helped create. Had it not been for his rath yatra, the party could never have hoped to have emerged onto the national scene in such a big way from two to 182 seats in the Lok Sabha. Advani helped demolish Babri Masjid in his quest for the Prime Minister-ship. He tore up the country’s all inclusive social fabric, he even tore up the BJP for his self interest. Perhaps its some divine intervention that has brought him to his present dismal state!

He hoped that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections the electorates would give a befitting reply and stop Modi in his tracks before he could unleash his destructive policies at the national level to bring miseries to millions of people of this great country called “Bharat”.