The Hindu : Warm reception to 'rath yatra'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 10, 2002

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Other States - Gujarat

Warm reception to 'rath yatra'

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Sept. 10 . The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, continued to receive warm receptions on the second day of the first leg of his ``gaurav rath yatra'' that moved through one of the worst riot-hit north Gujarat districts today.

The rath yatra skirted Kadi town in Mehsana district and the scheduled public meeting was cancelled as a mark of respect to the deceased BJP councillor, Kirit Patel, who was shot dead by a gunman on Sunday. Mr. Modi and the State unit president of the party, Rajendrasinh Rana, visited the family of the deceased to pay their homage before resuming the `rath yatra from Detroj.

Earlier in the day, the `rath yatra' which resumed from Himmatnagar, the district headquarters of Sabarkantha, after a night's halt, was received by a large crowd at Vijapur town where the people weighed Mr. Modi against silver, the proceeds of which would go for the promotion of girls' education in the State.

The impromptu roadside meetings Mr. Modi had to address because of the assembly of large crowds at various unscheduled points on the way of the rath yatra, forced it to run nearly four hours behind schedule on Sunday.

At Himmatnagar, a huge crowd was waiting for him even as the `rath yatra' reached after 2 a.m. The organisers had planned to cancel the public meeting because of the late hours but the crowds would have none of it.

Keeping the Congress at the focal point of his attack, Mr. Modi said the people of the State would never allow the party to "fulfil its dream of returning to Gandhinagar via Godhra.'' It was high time to "teach a lesson'' to those who had tried to hurt the pride and self-esteem of the people of the State through "malicious and false propaganda,'' he said.

Without naming the Election Commission, Mr. Modi, again raised a question on the impartiality and judgement of the Commission in refusing to hold early elections in the State. "If the elections could be held in the terrorist-infested Jammu and Kashmir, why not in Gujarat where normality has returned,'' he asked. He said no one could deprive the people of the State of their right to elect their own Government.

The first phase of the `rath yatra' ends with a meeting at Chanasma, also in Mehsana district, tonight to be resumed again on September 14, this time from Jhankhava village, a pilgrim centre for Dalits, in Dhandhuka taluka in Ahmedabad district.

The Congress, however, has strongly criticised Mr. Modi for his unchivalrous remarks against Sonia Gandhi and said the Chief Minister "scared of being rejected by the people was at his wits' end.'' The State president, Shankarsinh Waghela, told media persons in Rajkot that Mr. Modi was deliberately trying to twist Ms. Gandhi's address in Porbandar where she had accused the leaders of the ruling party of trying to convert Gandhiji's Gujarat into "Godse's Gujarat.''

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Warm reception to 'rath yatra'