Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has hit out at the Congress again, a week after daring the Centre to remove Gujarat from the list of centrally-assisted states. "I invite the whole Congress regime, please do not waste a single day, book me for sedition today and hang me. Let me see how they can," he said while addressing a public function in Surat on Sunday. "But how can they? They have not been able to hang Afzal Guru," he added referring to the man convicted for terror attack on Parliament in 2001.

Modi has been playing political rhetoric again in recent days. At a function in Vadodara last week, he said Gujarat gives Rs 40,000 crore as taxes to the Centre and receives only 2.5 per cent of it in return. He asked the government to stop collecting taxes from Gujarat and also stop aid to the state. The Congress questioned Modi's remarks and said they were "nothing less than an assault on the idea of India." During recent Gujarat elections, Modi's controversial statements reaped rich dividends for him. He had taken on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for calling him a 'maut ka saudagar (merchant of death).'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks at itself as the only party strong enough to deal with terror and is not leaving any opportunity to hit out at the Congress. “Make tougher laws than POTA and the country will run better,” declared BJP President Rajnath Singh. Modi has kick-started the BJP's new campaign before general elections due next year. And he is looking ahead to a larger role in national politics.

In return to Modi’s daring, Congress on Monday hit back over his allegations that the Centre was giving step-motherly treatment to his state, accusing the Gujarat Chief Minister of lying and saying such statements would lead to “balkanization” of the country.

“In national interest, whatever steps are required to be taken will be taken at an appropriate time,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters. He was responding to Modi daring the Congress to file a case of sedition against him. On Modi daring the government to hang him by booking him for sedition and referring to Mohd Afzal, Tewari said: “If Narendra Modi wants to equate himself with Mohd Afzal, then Congress has nothing to say.” Reacting to Modi’s charge that the UPA government was neglecting his state, Tewari said: “He is lying to the people and the BJP central leadership is silent. But such attacks will lead to balkanization of the country.”

Stating that Modi should not take the help of “lies” in politics, he noted that in 2008-9, maximum Central assistance has been given to non-Congress states, including UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Gujarat. Tewari quoted a written reply given by the Finance Ministry in Parliament to project that Gujarat got more Central funds under the UPA rule than under the erstwhile NDA regime. He said that in 2001-2, the Central devolution to Gujarat was to the tune of Rs 2,983 crore, while in 2002-03, the amount went up to Rs 4,351 crore and stood at Rs 3,795 crore in 2003-04.