Rounding off an unprecedented poll campaign which he began soon after the Gujarat riots—and for which he got a ringing endorsement from his party in Goa eight months ago—Chief Minister Narendra Modi today drew the battlelines harder for his voters. Just a day after the Prime Minister himself held forth on the culture of diversity, Modi seemed to have brushed all that aside. ‘‘If the Congress wins in Gujarat,’’ he said, ‘‘they will burst fire-crackers in Pakistan and if the BJP wins, the entire India will celebrate Diwali. It’s for you to decide where the fire-crackers will be burst on December 15,’’ Modi told crowds during his whistlestop tour of North Gujarat on the last day of campaigning. Who’s afraid of EC’s deadline? Not the VHP Tuesday, 5 p.m., was supposed to clock the end of election campaigning but not, it appears, for the Sangh Parivar: • Hindu Mahasabha activists go door to door in Padra, 25 kms from Vadodara, distributing pamphlets titled Gujaratna Vir Hinduo and asking voters to choose between ‘‘Haji Bilals and Ram bhakts’’ and ‘‘Bapu and Sardar’’ • VHP’s Acharya Dharmendra addresses meeting in Vadorara • Hindu Mahasabha posters signed by Hemant Upadhyaya, secretary of the organisation, and criticising the “Congress, Communists, socialists, Imam Bukhari, Syed Shahbuddin and secularists” pop up ‘‘They will burst fire-crackers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to hail the win of Congress,’’ Modi said at Modhera. ‘‘It is up to the 5 crore people of Gujarat to decide who will burst crackers when results are declared.’’ Modi twisted an appeal issued in a local newspaper by the All India Muslim Ulema Council, calling it a ‘‘fatwa.’’ Contrary to what the appeal said, Modi claimed that it exhorted people to take revenge for the post-Godhra violence by voting out the BJP. ‘‘This is what makes this entire election very religious. It is not an election for MLAs or choosing a chief minister. It is an election related to religion,’’ Modi said. Hopping from one venue to other in a chopper, Modi started from Gosaria and Satlasan in Kheda district, flew to Modhera and later addressed huge crowds at Patan and Thara. He appealed for 100 per cent voting on December 12, holding up the Ulema’s appeal. ‘‘Whether they vote 100 per cent or not on December 12,’’ he said, ‘‘you all should vote and it is the day when you will vote for your government.’’ He accused Congress leaders of visiting mosques and dargahs during Eid to garner the minority vote and thereby ‘‘misusing the real meaning of the festival, which preaches brotherhood among all communities and spreads a message of peace.’’ At all his five public meetings, Modi read out a letter that he has got published in local newspapers exhorting people why they should vote for BJP. ‘‘This is the deciding moment, if you want to save the state from the clutches of the fundamentalists and jehadis you must all vote. For your security, peace, pride and prosperity of five crore Gujaratis, I kept myself in the race and took the criticism on me. You have supported me in the time of crisis. And I have faith that today also you will not desert me. If you want to sleep well till 2007, wake up on December 12 and vote. Come out in large numbers, kick the fundamentalists and jehadis out. I assure you that if you keep awake for one day on Thursday I will keep awake for you for five years.’’ On the other hand, Gujarat Congress president Shankersinh Vaghela who campaigned in Ahmedabad said that Modi’s statements showed that the BJP was already feeling jittery about an expected Congress victory. That’s why, he said, Modi is talking of ‘‘If the Congress wins.there will be celebrations in Pakistan.At least, the BJP now admits the Congress can win in this election.’’ The ‘‘fatwa,’’ which, according to Modi and the VHP, asks people to take ‘‘revenge for the post-Godhra violence’’ is an ad by the All India Muslim Ulema Council asking ‘‘secular-minded people to vote for the Congress if they wanted to defeat Fascist forces.’’ The appeal was issued by council convenor Shabbir Ahmed Siddiqui on December 5 in a local daily widely circulated among the minority community. The VHP countered with its own ad saying ‘‘Muslim Scholars Fatwa: Vote Only for the Congress.Now is the time for the Hindus to become decisive for their safety.do 100 per cent voting.’’ Siddiqui issued a clarification saying calling the ad a fatwa was an attempt to incite feelings. ‘‘The Hindu brethren should not be misguided by such propaganda,’’ he said. ‘‘We must show Hindu-Muslim unity by teaching such elements a lesson.’’ The Congress, meanwhile, has distanced itself from the appeal. ‘‘We have represented before the Election Commission that the Congress has nothing to do with this appeal or the organisation and that action should be taken against the VHP and those spreading false propaganda,’’ a spokesman said.
