Modi to observe fast today for Sadbhavna mission

Taking his 'Sadbhavna' mission further, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will observe a one-day fast at Navsari town on Today.

Under the mission which is aimed at propagating peace and harmony, Modi will be observing a series of fasts at 26 districts in future.

Modi, who had observed a three-day fast in Ahmedabad last month, also undertook a day-long fast on Sunday at the temple town of Dwarka in coastal Jamnagar district.

The Chief Minister will tomorrow visit an exhibition depicting development of Gujarat in all fields in the last decade, at the venue of the fast, organisers said.

A series of programmes like 'maha aarti', blood donation camps, besides drawing, essay and painting competitions has been held in the entire district for the past few days to mark the event, they said.

BJP MP CR Patil is overseeing preparations for the event in which thousands of party workers are likely to participate.

Modi will inaugurate a painting exhibition at Tata Hall today and address a meeting.

He will also address ministers and officials of the district at Navsari Circuit House, organisers said.

Anti-Modi cop Sanjiv Bhatt secures bail

In a setback to the Gujarat government, suspended and arrested IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was on Monday granted bail by a sessions court here.

Bhatt is likely to be released from jail within few hours, his lawyer told reporters.

Bhatt was arrested on September 30 for allegedly making a constable sign false affidavit in connection with Gujarat riots.

Sessions Judge VK Vyas, after hearing the arguments of special public prosecutor SV Raju and Bhatt's advocate IH Syed, had reserved the order on bail on October 12.

During the hearing, Bhatt's advocate Syed contended that his client's arrest was politically motivated.

He argued that the arrest was also aimed at getting hold of and destroying the alleged evidence he had against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with regard to the 2002 communal riots.

Syed had further contended that the complaint, on which Bhatt was arrested, was false and was filed with an ulterior motive, at the behest of some political functionaries and senior police officers.

He had said that the complainant, constable KD Pant, who had alleged that Bhatt had threatened him and forced him to sign false affidavits, appeared to be acting as a ploy at the dictates of political members of the state government.

State government's senior counsel Raju, while opposing Bhatt's bail, contended that Bhatt did not deserve bail, as he was a habitual offender with criminal antecedents.

To support his claims, Raju highlighted other criminal cases against him in various courts, which included case of police torture in custody registered in 1994 in Porbandar, and a case under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act, which is pending against Bhatt in Pali, Rajasthan since 1996. Raju further said that prima facie, there was a case made out against Bhatt, which is punishable upto life imprisonment.

He also alleged that Bhatt had tried to evade the process of law by not cooperating with the investigation in the case against him and not remaining present before the investigation officer despite being summoned four times.

Advani's yatra an attempt to fast-forward 2014 polls: Congress

The Congress party says that senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani's rath yatra, scheduled to begin Today, had a hidden agenda of trying to force a mid-term poll.

'The objective of the yatra is how 2014 can be fast forwarded to 2012, something which is not going to happen,' Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said at a press briefing at the party headquarters here Monday.

Referring to the four major planks of the yatra - black money, Lokpal, judicial accountability and electoral reforms - Tewari said it was surprising that the BJP, which did not do anything on these issues when it was in power for six years, was raking them up now.

He said the yatra should have begun from either Bangalore or Dehradun, the capitals of the states where BJP had to change their chief ministers following allegations of corruption.

Taking a dig at Advani, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh said 'till the time Advani continues to be the prime ministerial candidate, there is no no cause of concern' for the Congress.

'The management of the yatra of Advani or that of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi or Baba Ramdev was with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS),' Singh told reporters here.

'Such yatras are helpful to the RSS as the Sangh and the BJP leaders are expert in collecting contributions for such ventures for their own benefit,' he added.

Congress: Modi’s fast was a joke

Senior Congress leader Shankar Singh Vaghela, who had gone on a parallel fast to counter the one by Gujarat CM, said on Tuesday that ‘Sadbhavana’ is not a mission and that Narendra Modi’s fast was a joke.

Vaghela, a former RSS prachark like Modi, said, “Fast, if not used for the right cause backfires. Their fast has turned out to be a joke. How can Sadbhavana be a mission? It has to be the way of life of an individual”

“My fast is the real fast, it is not a festival. Why is AC needed for fasting?” Vaghela said, adding, “Why didn’t he (Modi) not hold on to the promise of fasting for 72 hours, why didn’t they stick to it?”

Vaghela, state party president Arjun Modhvadia and other senior party leaders have fasted for three days.

The Congress had dubbed Modi's fast as "five star" as it being held in an air-conditioned hall. Vaghela and Modhvadia are sitting on a footpath in front of Sabarmati Ashram, the Opposition leaders pointed out.

On Modi’s plan to hold sadbhavana fast in all 26 districts of the state, Vaghela said, “People were brought in (for Modi’s fast); they were given food and then beaten up.”

Alleging that crores of public money has been wasted by the state government to make Chief Minister’s fast a success, Vaghela said that the Congress will demand a white paper on the expenditure incurred.

“Why does Modi fear the Lokayukta?”Vaghela added while attacking the CM.

Narendra Modi to end his fast today

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will end his sadbhavna fast at 5.30 pm today. Six km away from his air-conditioned venue, Congress veteran Shankarsinh Vaghela has a snigger and some criticism.

Mr Vaghela, who is on a counter-fast at the Gandhi Ashram - one that began an hour before Mr Modi's did on Saturday - wants to know why the Gujarat Chief Minister will not fast for a full 72 hours to make it a three-day fast as he had promised. The Congressman, who was once Mr Modi's RSS colleague, will break his fast at 10 am on Tuesday.

Criticism for Mr Modi has not been uncommon over the weekend as the man of the moment launched the grand show in an overt effort to change his image and gain wider political acceptance to prepare for the national stage. Though the top BJP leadership has rallied around him and some allies turned up to endorse him, others like the JD(U) have questioned his national acceptance, the Congress has called his fast a "drama".

Gujarat riot victims have slammed the fast as a spectacle to whitewash Mr Modi's image. Sunday, Day 2 of his fast, saw much action with the police detaining riot victims and activists Mallika Sarabhai and Mukul Sinha in Naroda Patiya as they protested against the CM's fast. Naroda Patiya, about 8 km from the fast site at Gujarat University Convention hall, had witnessed the worst riots incident in 2002, when more than 90 people were killed.

The BJP's quick defence in spokesperson Prakash Javedekar's words: "There is a gang that is defaming Gujarat for the last one decade and they are doing it for their own political purpose, but they are getting defeated everywhere. People are coming so it is not just one person (Vastanvi) who is speaking the truth about the people of Gujarat. It is about thousands of Muslims who are doing it and participating in it. It's for a political purpose and a mischievous campaign and just to disturb and distort for which the police has to take a call."

On Monday, top BJP leader Sushma Swaraj is expected to join Mr Modi at the venue of his fast. And Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has taken off from Mumbai airport to meet Mr Modi on the last day of his fast.

On Saturday, Day 1, also Mr Modi's 61st birthday a veritable pantheon of BJP leaders and those of its allies shared stage with Modi, felicitating him and praising him for Gujarat's development.

The 2002 Gujarat riots remain the one big blemish on Mr Modi's career, and with his amity mission, fast to promote communal harmony and open letters to the people of his state, many say the Gujarat Chief Minister's attempt for sadbhavna is a careful image-altering exercise as he gets set for the national stage in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Modi reached out to a fair sprinkling of Muslims at his fast and spoke of inclusive plans. But his attempt at emerging as the first among equals in the BJP needs acceptance across the political spectrum. Though the Akali Dal and the AIADMK backed Modi's fast, he faces stiff competition for the top job from ally JD(U) who doesn't back him as Nitish Kumar is a claimant for the same job.

The fast was the result of a defining last week for the Gujarat Chief Minister. The Supreme Court transferred a Gujarat-riots-related case to a lower court in the state and Narendra Modi tweeted, "God is Great". Suddenly, from a US think tank to BJP patriarch LK Advani, there was talk about Narendra Modi, possible future Prime Minister.

The three-day fast is all about Modi. He is the actor, director and script writer of the show. There are no BJP flags, no hoardings with smiling faces of Vajpayee, Advani and Gadkari. It signals that there is room for just one leader at the top in the party. Modi has taken the head start saying two is a crowd.