Says Congress kept Kashmir separate from India due to Art 370
MAHENDRAGARH (HARYANA), May 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday claimed that if the Congress has its way, it will arrest everyone who says “Ram Ram”, and accused the party of dividing India and creating two Muslim nations to appease its vote bank.
Hours before campaigning for the sixth round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls came to an end, Modi at a rally in Haryana’s Mahendragarh also claimed that the INDIA bloc is talking about having five PMs over the next five years. “The fight over ‘ghee’ has broken out in the alliance, even before the cow has given milk,” he said.
Targeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC like the Congress is part of the INDIA bloc, Modi said though the Calcutta High Court has cancelled the OBC certificates given to Muslims in the last 10-to-12 years, she is not ready to accept the verdict.
“Till I am alive, no one can snatch the reservation for Dalits and tribals,” Prime Minister Modi asserted while campaigning for Dharambir Singh, the BJP’s candidate from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat that goes to polls along with the nine other constituencies in the state on May 25.
The INDIA bloc is “extremely communal, casteist and nepotist”, he said while alleging that when the Congress was in power, it did not allow the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“In Haryana, everybody says ‘Ram Ram’. People say ‘Ram Ram’ after every 10 steps,” Modi told the gathering at his third rally in the state.
“But if the Congress has its way, it will arrest those who say ‘Ram Ram’,” he said.
Till the time the Congress was in power, it did not allow the Ram temple to be built, Modi alleged while slamming it for rejecting the invitation for the consecration ceremony of the temple in Ayodhya.
The prime minister alleged that an “advisor” of the ‘shehzada’ — a reference to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi — has revealed that if the Congress comes to power, it would want to put a lock on the Ram temple. The Congress has “insulted our ‘astha’ (devotion)”, he said.
In this election, “you will not only choose the country’s PM but also decide the country’s future,” Modi told the rally in which Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini was also present.
“On one hand is your tried and tested ‘sewak’ Modi. Who is on the other side, one does not know,” he said, targeting the INDIA bloc.
“The alliance is talking about having five PMs in five years, with a PM for each year. Can a country be run like this,” Modi asked and added that at ‘chaupals’ in Haryana, people will come up with “5,000 jokes” of the INDIA bloc’s “five PM project”.
He said the entire country knows the Congress’ truth. “The Congress and the INDI alliance have their vote bank in the country,” Modi said.
He slammed the Congress on the issue of Article 370 and said it was the party that kept Kashmir separate from India. “Today, they are saying that they will bring back Article 370, if they come to power,” Modi said.
On the Congress raising the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, Modi alleged that the party had deceived ex-servicemen by depriving them of OROP for many decades. The Congress is full of hatred for the army and soldiers, he charged.
Modi said it was his government which implemented OROP with an involved outlay of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
