Saharanpur/Ajmer: The Congress manifesto carries the imprint of the Muslim League with “every page reeking of breaking India”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, virtually equating the Congress to the party which is blamed for the Partition.
Modi, who addressed BJP’s election rallies in Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan’s Ajmer, also criticised the Congress for staying away from the consecration ceremony of Ram temple in Ayodhya and for remarks against ‘Shakti’.
“Opposing the visit to the consecration of Ram temple? Is it appropriate? Not only this, if someone visited, he was expelled from the Congress party for six years. Can this happen in this country, can you imagine the country without Lord Ram?”
“Lord Ram has got a permanent abode. Ram Navami is coming and people are going to celebrate. Let’s see how much you will oppose it,” Modi said.
Prime Minister Modi said the Congress which existed at the time of the freedom movement is long gone and the party today neither has policies nor the vision for the nation’s development.
He slammed the Congress manifesto, calling it a bundle of lies and claiming that it has “exposed” the party that wants to “impose” the ideas of the Muslim League on India.
“Every page reeks of breaking India into pieces. The Congress manifesto reflects the same thinking that was prevalent in the Muslim League during the freedom movement.
“It completely bears the imprint of the Muslim League and whatever is remaining is completely dominated by the Leftists,” Modi said.
He said it is the misfortune of the country that the opposition alliance is talking about fighting against ‘Shakti’.
“Worshipping Shakti is a part of our natural spiritual journey. But, the people of the INDI alliance say their fight is against Shakti,” Modi said.
Hitting back, the Congress accused the BJP of practising “politics of divisiveness” and reminded Modi that Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee had joined the coalition government in Bengal with the Muslim League in the early 1940s.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “The prime minister does not know his history as it was, in fact, none other than Mookerjee, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha then, who was himself part of the coalition government in Bengal with the Muslim League.”
The Hindu Mahasabha was also in coalition with the Muslim League in Sindh and North-West Frontier Province.
“It is the BJP, not the Congress, that believes in and practices the politics of divisiveness,” Ramesh said.
Stepping up his attack on the opposition INDIA bloc including Congress on the issue of corruption, Modi said their aim is to earn “commission” after coming to power while the BJP-led NDA is working with a “mission” to make India a developed nation.
Modi called the Congress a party of “dynasts and corrupt” that is bereft of both principles and policies.
“Wherever there is Congress, there cannot be any development. The Congress never thought about the poor, marginalised and youths…. These people considered looting public money as their ancestral right. In the last 10 years, Modi has provided a permanent cure for the disease,” the prime minister said in Ajmer.
Modi said that the third term of his government is not far and the government is going to take even bigger decisions against corruption in the first 100 days.
“It can only be said about the Congress – ‘ek to karela, uppar se neem chadha’. It’s a party of dynasties and equally a corrupt party… Modi has pulled down the shutter of their shop of loot. That is why they are in a panic,” he said.
Modi said Muslim women will bless him for centuries to come as he has removed the “sword” of triple talaq hanging over them and their families.
Addressing the election rally in Saharanpur, Modi reached out to the Muslim community, which has a sizeable population in the Lok Sabha constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh, saying real secularism is when all get the benefit of government welfare schemes irrespective of their caste and religion as has been seen during the BJP rule.
“The BJP government has ended the evil practice of (instant) triple talaq. We enacted a strong law in the interest of crores of Muslim sisters” and protected their families, he said.
Modi said that corruption shatters poor people’s dreams, deprives them of their rights and prevents their progress.
“If your son or daughter is eligible for a job, but someone else gets it through corrupt means, what will happen to the future of your children?
“I am acting against corruption for your better future… I am being subjected to abuses … And, they (referring to the opposition) hold rallies to save the corrupt. This is Modi and he will not step back. Action against the corrupt will continue, this is Modi’s guarantee,” the prime minister said.
“A number of great personalities were associated with the Congress. The name of Mahatma Gandhi was associated with the Congress. The Congress, which is left today, neither has policies in the interest of the nation nor vision for the nation’s development,” Modi said.
The opposition party’s election manifesto “has proved that today’s Congress is completely cut off from the hopes and aspirations of today’s India”, he said.
In Saharanpur, Prime Minister Modi also took a jibe at the Samajwadi Party, which is a member of the INDIA bloc and an election partner of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
“The situation of SP (Samajwadi Party) in Uttar Pradesh is such that here they have to change their candidates every hour, whereas the situation of Congress is even more strange. The Congress is not getting candidates at all,” Modi, who also held a road show in UP’s Ghaziabad later in the evening, said.
“Even on the seats which the Congress considered as its stronghold it is not able to muster the courage to field candidates,” he added apparently referring to Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Prime Minister Modi claimed the “INDI alliance has become another name for instability and uncertainty”.
Without taking the name of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Prime Minister Modi said, “The film featuring two boys (‘do ladke’), which had flopped last time, has been re-released by these people”, and wondered how many times they will repeat it.
