'Gujarat model' will bring 'vinash' not 'vikas' , says CPI-M

The editorial said the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, which have claimed more than 40 lives, had served as the perfect backdrop for the BJP to anoint Modi as its prime ministerial prospect.

The CPI-M also mocked at Modi's decision to erect a gigantic statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Gujarat as a "Statue of Unity" by collecting iron pieces from across the country.

The editorial recalled that it was Sardar Patel who banned the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) following the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

"Such a misappropriation of Sardar Patel is part of the overall objective of re-writing Indian history in order to straightjacket it into a monolithic record of the glorification of the 'Hindu Nation'.

"Such an effort is integral to advance the RSS project of the metamorphosis of the modern Indian secular democratic Republic into their version of 'Hindu Rashtra'."