New Delhi ,Feb. 7: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s praise for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union home minister P. Chidambaram has not gone down well in the BJP headquarters. The party is likely to seek an explanation from Mr Modi on the issue because the praise came in the midst of a continuous Opposition attack on the Centre for its failure on many fronts, including internal security. Mr Modi, at the chief ministers’ conference on internal security on Sunday, praised the Prime Minister and the home minister for the Centre’s swift and positive action and for greater cooperation with his state in dealing with security concerns.
Sources in the BJP disclosed that the anti-Modi camp had taken up the matter with party chief Nitin Gadkari. A section within the party also feels that Mr Modi’s praise for both Dr Singh and Mr Chidambaram on internal security had come at a “very wrong time” as the BJP is planning to corner the Centre on the issue during the forthcoming Budget Session of Parliament. Also, the issue is going to figure prominently during the BJP national executive meeting in Indore where the party will continue its attack on the government.This section is also unhappy that it was Mr Modi who praised the Centre when the Centre is being blamed for asking the President not to give her assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill. Party sources disclosed that Mr Gadkari is likely to ask Mr Modi to explain his stand on the Centre’s approach to the internal security situation. Some BJP leaders said they were surprised to hear the Gujarat CM praise Dr Singh when just a day before he had taken a jibe at the Centre over its “helplessness” on the price-rise issue. “It was not fair on his part to praise them when the party had been hitting the Centre for its failure to tackle the issue properly,” said a senior party functionary.
Yojna Gusai