Ambala (Hry): Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharpened his attack on the Congress on Saturday and said it was his “dhakad” (strong) government that brought down the wall of Article 370 and as a result, Jammu and Kashmir is now moving ahead on the path of progress.
Tearing into the Congress, Modi said its history has been of betraying India’s forces and soldiers as he referred to the “Jeep scandal”, the “first scam” during the grand old party’s rule.
“Their first scam was in the (armed) forces,” the prime minister said, addressing his first rally in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls.
“The Congress maintained its track record with new scams till it was in power at the Centre. Be it the Bofors scam, the submarine scam, the helicopter scam — the Congress used to keep the forces weak. Do you know why? So that in the name of procuring arms from abroad, it could earn huge sums,” he alleged.
Referring to Haryana contributing a sizable number of soldiers in the armed forces, Modi said when the Congress was in power, mothers in the state were a worried lot thinking about their children’s safety.
“Have such things stopped now or not?” he asked the audience that responded with an emphatic “yes”.
On Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said a weak government could never have changed the situation in the region.
“Modi’s dhakad government brought down the wall of Article 370 and Kashmir is now moving ahead on the path of development,” he said.
In August 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution that had bestowed special rights on Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories.
Regarding farmers, Modi said the previous Congress-led government at the Centre spent Rs 7.5 lakh crore to procure foodgrains at the minimum support price (MSP) in 10 years, whereas the current regime’s procurement of crops at the MSP was for Rs 20 lakh crore.
He also accused the Congress of cheating sugarcane farmers. “When we came to power, their arrears had run up to Rs 60,000 crore. This year alone, we paid Rs 1.14 lakh crore,” Modi said.
Referring to the AAP-Congress poll alliance in certain states, he said Congress leaders are holding the “jhadoo” (broomstick, the Aam Aadmi Party’s poll symbol) in Delhi and Haryana, but claiming that “jhadoowala chor hai” in Punjab, where the two parties are contesting the election against each other.
The prime minister reiterated his claim that the Congress will redistribute the reservation meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) on the basis of religion, and alleged that the opposition party wants to snatch the quota for Dalits in jobs and education.
“The Congress has nothing to do with women, farmers and youngsters. For the Congress, its vote bank is everything,” he said.
Modi said the Ram temple in Ayodhya was built after a 500-year wait. “The entire country is happy but Congress leaders utter insulting words about the temple,” he said.
He said only 17 days are left for June 4, when the Lok Sabha poll results will be announced.
The Congress and its partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have drawn a blank in the first four phases of polling, Modi claimed.
Patriotism runs in the veins of Haryana, he said, adding that the “state understands anti-national forces. Therefore, each house in Haryana is saying — phir ek baar” and the crowd responded, saying “Modi sarkar”.
“When there is a dhakad government in the country, the enemy thinks 100 times before doing anything,” the prime minister said.
He said Pakistan, which earlier had bombs in its hands, is now holding on to a “begging bowl”.
The Congress never cared about the small needs of the country’s soldiers, including their clothes, shoes and bullet-proof jackets, he said.
“They did not even have good rifles. They were given lathis and asked to tackle the terrorists’ bullets with those. When Modi came to power, I said this will not carry on like this. I started a campaign to make our forces self-reliant. Today, they are getting made-in-India weapons. India is now selling to other countries weapons that it used to buy from them,” the prime minister said.
He accused the Congress of betraying the ex-servicemen and keeping the “One Rank, One Pension” issue lingering for four decades.
“In 2013, when the Congress felt that Modi has become a big challenge and its government is about to fall, on its way out, it made a provision for Rs 500 crore in the budget.
“Its shehzada (former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi) used to hold conferences of ex-servicemen in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and mislead them on OROP,” he said.
Modi said it was his government that fulfilled the promise of OROP and more than Rs 1.2 lakh crore have been given under it.
Voting for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will be held in the sixth phase of the seven-phase election on May 25.
Among those present at the rally were former Haryana chief minister and the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll candidate from Karnal, Manohar Lal Khattar, the party’s Ambala and Kurukshetra candidates, Banto Kataria and Naveen Jindal.
Earlier, Modi paid tributes to former Union minister Rattan Lal Kataria.
Saturday marked the death anniversary of Kataria, who represented Ambala in the Lok Sabha. His wife Banto Kataria is the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll candidate from the seat this time.
