Narendra Modi's open challenge to PM Manmohan Singh

New Delhi, Aug 16: As India celebrated its 67th Independence Day with great fervor across the country, a history was created the same day when the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi delivered a speech at Shri Ramji Ravji Lalan College, Bhuj, in Kutch District of Gujarat.

On August 15, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi projected himself to the nation as "man on a mission", with a firm eye on the upcoming general elections 2014.

The BJP's poll panel chief Modi gave an open challenge to the incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by describing his speech as "disappointing".

After hoisting the tricolour national flag at the Lalan College, Modi lashed out the Congress-led UPA government's policies and highlighted the achievements accomplished by his government in Gujarat.

Modi reviewed the PM's speech by saying, "I am very disappointed with the PM's speech. There was no message. Not just me, the whole country is disappointed."

"I expected PM would make a strong statement from Red Fort. Prime Minister should have talked tough from the ramparts of Red Fort", he added.

Modi also slammed PM for not taking tough stand against Pakistan's repeated incidents of ceasefire violations and Chinese troops' incursions into the Indian territory.

The straight-forward Modi challenged the PM saying, "You are ruling a big country, we are managing a small state. I challenge the Prime Minister for a debate on the issue of development and good governance between government sitting in Delhi and our government."

It seems that Modi's recent rally in Hyderabad (on August 11) that was aimed at the youth of the state and then the Independence Day power-packed speech were carefully crafted while keeping the 'mood of the nation' in mind.

Narendra Modi, definitely has a point when he directly positioned himself against Manmohan Singh because sooner or later, the BJP is going to declare him as the party's prime ministerial candidate.

Although media tagged Dr Manmohan Singh's speech likely to be the "last speech as the PM" but Singh claimed that there were "miles to be covered in the future".

The ambitious Modi underlined that the youth of this nation is impatiently seeking 'change'.

OneIndia News