War on Twitter: Gogoi slams Modi over Kodnani

Guwahati, Sept 16: With the BJP announcing Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Monday attacked the Gujarat chief minister on Twitter, questioning his "secularism".

"Where was Modi's secularism when his former minister Kodnani (since convicted and jailed) was involved in communal riots in Gujarat?" tweeted the Assam chief minister.

Later, Gogoi, a senior Congressman and Sonia Gandhi loyalist, also held a press conference and said this is the first time that a national political party was seeking the mandate on the basis of one person, Narendra Modi.

"Political parties normally fight polls over several issues. We are also going to fight next year's polls. However, we are going to contest the polls over several issues -- development schemes, implementation of schemes and other issues. But for the first time in my long political career, I see the BJP going to contest polls under one person," Gogoi said, while talking to newsmen.

"Announcing Modi as prime ministerial candidate also proves that the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) dictates everything in the BJP," he said.

"There have been a galaxy of leaders in the BJP, including A.B. Vajpayee, M.M. Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu and others. However, all of them have been diminished due to Modi," Gogoi said, adding that "Modi magic" would not work in Assam.

The Gujarat chief minister is likely to visit Assam in November this year, and is expected to address at least five public rallies in different parts of the state.

"The Modi magic is not going to work in Assam. We have Srimanta Sankardev and Madhabdev and Ajan Fakir in Assam and their magic will work in Assam," Gogoi said.

Sankardev, the 15th century scholar and religious reformer, started the neo-Vaishnavite movement in Assam that represented the Bhakti movement, and had a unifying influence in society, calling on people to transcend caste divisions.

Ajan Fakir was the a 17th century Sufi saint in Assam who also had a unifying influence.

Gogoi quoted newspaper reports and said that Assam has performed better than Gujarat as far as implementation of schemes was concerned.

IANS