Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi came in for sharp criticism from acerbic Congress leader Digvijay Singh who assailed him for describing himself as a 'Hindu nationalist', saying "shouldn't we all be Nationalist Indians" and also asked the BJP leader not to 'divide the nation" on the basis of religion.
A day after Modi's remarks sparked a political furore,Singh tweeted, "Shouldn't we all be Nationalist Indians rather than Hindu Nationalist or Muslim Nationalist or Sikh Nationalist or Christian Nationalist ?".In another tweet, he also took a jibe at the Sangh Parivar saying, "Don't divide this great nation on basis of religion which Savarkar and Jinnah did. They were the original authors of two nation theory." The tweets of Singh, a known detractor of the controversial Modi, came on the heels of the BJP leader's attempts to defend himself against allegations of inaction during the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
"Even If I am in the back seat of a car and a puppy comes under the wheels, isn't it painful? It is. Whether I am a chief minister or not, I am a human being. I will be sad if something bad happens anywhere," Modi was quoted as saying in an interview to Reuters.The Gujarat chief minister said he had done "absolutely the right thing" during the 2002 riots and that his government had used its "full strength" to set things in order. "I am nationalist. I'm patriotic. Nothing is wrong.I am born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So I'm a Hindu nationalist. So yes, you can say I'm a Hindu nationalist because I'm a born Hindu," he had said.
