Aware that it is only on his shoulders that the BJP could sail through the tough 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday recounted his initiatives as the chief minister as well as the Prime Minister at different public meetings, urging people to beware of “urban Naxals”.
He addressed public meetings at Anand in central Gujarat, Amod in the late Ahmed Patel’s home-district Bharuch and Jamnagar in Saurashtra region and laid the foundation stone of a variety of projects.
In a public address in Anand, Modi stated that, “Because of urban naxals (a term used by the BJP for dissenters), we wasted 40-50 years of time in the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam over the Narmada river. It has now been completed after huge efforts.”
Earlier in Amod, the Prime Minister claimed that 'urban Naxals' were trying to gain access to Gujarat using another strategy but Gujarat would not let them destroy the lives of youth by misguiding them.
Without referring to the Aam Aadmi Party directly, Modi said, “Urban Naxals are trying to enter the state with new appearances. They have changed their costumes. They are misleading our innocent and energetic youth into following them.”
The Prime Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone of the country's first bulk drug park in Bharuch district.
He went on, “The urban Naxals are setting foot from above. We won't let them destroy our young generation. We should ensure that our children are not waylaid by the urban Naxals who are bent upon destroying the country. They are agents of foreign powers. Gujarat will not bow before them, but destroy them.”
The Prime Minister had made similar accusations in the poll-bound state weeks ago, stating that urban Naxals had put spanner in the construction of the Narmada dam and asserted that the “anti-development elements” conducted a campaign claiming that it would adversely affect the environment.
