Photo: PTI
Batting for Narendra Modi as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, suspended party leader Ram Jethmalani today said the Gujarat Chief Minister is the "best" candidate for the post and "100 per cent secular". "According to me Narendra Bhai is the most and the best Prime Minister for this country. Nothing has happened to change my mind...Modi in my definition of secularism is 100
per cent secular," Jethamalani told reporters here today.
The noted lawyer said he had supported Modi as BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate about a month back and expressed happiness over Yashwant Sinha supporting him on the issue. "I don't believe that Yashwant Sinha has said anything to the contrary. He has supported my view and I am very happy that he has supported me. It lends greater credibility to what I have said," he said.
Attacking Modi's detractors for terming him as "communal", Jethmalani said, "His enemies and detractors have done their best to spoil his name by disseminating untruth and sometimes to my knowledge creating false evidence to support their false claim.
"I believe that he is impeccably secular and when I use the word best, it means better than all those who according to me are known aspirants of the job," he said. The suspended party leader said the words 'secular' and 'communal' were more used as "words of abuse than political dialogue" and attacked those who had reservations on Modi's candidature, saying "those who use the words don't even
understand its meaning, particularly the word secularism".
"They don't understand the 'S' of secularism and they keep talking about secularism," Jethmalani said. He said in his opinion the party's Prime Ministerial candidate should be announced before elections as it was causing "serious inconvenience" to people.
"This is not consistent with democratic practice," he said.
from
IBNLive
J&K: Infiltration along LoC, 1 killed
One Junior Commanding Officer was killed and another jawan injured after a major infiltration bid by a group of six terrorists was foiled by the Army along LoC in Machil in Kupwara district of North Kashmir.
from PTI
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to travel to Washington in a few months at the invitation of US President Barack Obama.
from IBNLive
K'taka: 28 MLAs inducted in cabinet
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday expanded his Cabinet with the induction of 28 Ministers.
from
IBNLive
CBI officer caught taking bribe
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official, who is also the Chief Investigating Officer probing the coal block allocation scam, was caught taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh on Friday.
from
PTI
TN: Farmers threaten mass suicides
Farmers in Coimbatore region on Friday threatened that they would resort to mass suicides if government went ahead with its plan to increase power tariff.
from
IBNLive
Chennai: MK Stalin surrenders illegal car
DMK leader MK Stalin on Friday surrendered his illegally-imported Hummer to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Chennai.
from
IBNLive
B'lore office blast: Police still clueless
A month after an explosion took place opposite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Malleshwaram in Bangalore, police are yet to zero in on the person who had planted the bomb.
