Modi, Rahul trade barbs 3 days before Bastar polling

RAIPUR:PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi squared off in Chhatttisgarh on Friday, three days ahead of the first round of polling in the state’s Bastar region, a Maoist hotbed, as they exchanged bitter political rhetoric over so-called “urban Naxals” and what each had done for the benefit of the state’s dominant tribespeople.

At his campaign rally in Jagdalpur, Modi hit out at the Congress for being soft on urban Naxals, a term coined for left-wing intellectuals who sympathise with Maoists. He accused the Congress of describing Maoists as “revolutionary” and of ruining the lives of the tribespeople of Chhattisgarh.

“You people must have seen the urban Naxals, seated in airconditioned rooms in cities, who look good, are in good company and enjoy status. Their children study abroad,” he said at the rally in the town located in Bastar. “If

You people must have seen the urban Naxals... If the government acts against them, then you (Congress) try to save them NARENDRA MODI Prime Minister

the government acts against them, then you (Congress) try to save them.” In a crackdown on August 28, the Maharashtra police arrested poet Varavara Rao, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha for their suspected links with Maoists.

Following the arrests, Congress chief Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led government of jailing activists.

The Congress is trying to end 15 years of BJP rule in Chhattishgarh, where elections to the 90-member assembly will be held in two phases — on November 12 and November 20. The first phase will see polling in 18 seats in eight Maoist-affected districts. The ruling BJP lost 12 of the 18 seats in the 2013 polls.

The remaining 72 constituencies will go to polls in the second phase on November 20.