Congress invokes Vajpayee's 'Rajdharma' remark to target Modi

NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may not be in active politics nowadays, but the Congress has brought the BJP's former 'poster boy' to limelight to target the opposition party's PM candidate Narendra Modi. Reminding the BJP of its 'Rajdharma', a post on the Congress website claims that Vajpayee believed that NDA's flop show in the 2004 general elections was related to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's failure to control the communal riots in his state in 2002. "Some people wanted to remove him. I was of the same opinion," said Vajpayee in Manali, the website quotes. This is confirmed by Jaswant Singh, who held key portfolios in the NDA government, it adds. The article on the Congress website further claims that in 2002 Vajpayee had even threatened to resign unless the BJP took action against Modi. Underlining that Modi failed to perform his 'Rajdharma' as the chief minister of the state, the article says, "It is evident that Vajpayee believed that the Gujarat CM had been not only inept but downright partisan in his handling of the riots." According to the article, not just the handling of the riots, Vajpayee believed that the Modi government wasn't doing enough to provide relief and rehabilitation to those who had been displaced during the riots. The Congress alleges that the BJP has sidelined its former top leader and his legacy apart from humiliating senior leaders like Jaswant Singh, who is believed to be a close confidant of Vajpayee. Having found a new icon in Modi, the BJP is working hard to distance itself from the Vajpayee legacy. Consider this. Vajpayee's niece, Karuna Shukla was forced to leave the party. She is presently with the Congress, it article says. The meticulously planned article further questions Subramainan Swamy's inclusion in BJP claiming that Swamy was the person who 'masterminded the downfall of the Vajpayee government in 1998'.   TOI