AHMEDABAD: After days of upbraiding Congress for seeking to “snatch” reservations from Dalits, tribals and backward classes and offer these to Muslims, PM Narendra Modi vowed Wednesday that “till Modi is alive, no one will be allowed to indulge in the dirty game of giving out quotas based on religion”.
Modi, whose poll caravan hit his native Gujarat ahead of the third phase of Lok Sabha polls on May 7, said at rallies in Deesa town of Banaskantha and Himmatnagar in adjoining Sabarkantha that Congress had been spreading canards about reservation and resorting to scare-mongering by saying the Constitution was under threat from BJP-led NDA.
“I challenge them (Congress and INDIA bloc) to give in writing that they will never extend reservation on religious grounds, and that reservations for SC/STs and OBCs won’t be taken away. But they won’t accept this challenge as something fishy is going on,” the PM said in Deesa.
On the opposition’s insinuation that NDA would abolish reservations in the long run, Modi said nothing could be farther from the truth. “Are they unaware that NDA has a clear majority (in Lok Sabha)? But we are not born to commit such a sin (as changing the Constitution).”
The PM said it was Congress that posed a threat to the Constitution by attempting to change the structure of reservation by reducing quotas for Dalits and others as part of its “appeasement” policy.
“They experimented with this in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In Karnataka, they declared all Muslims as OBCs and took away a portion of OBC reservations. Is this acceptable?” he asked the crowd.
Modi pointed out that despite being in office for so many years, Congress couldn’t implement constitutional safeguards for Dalits and OBCs in J&K. “But this is Modi. I nullified Article 370 and implemented the Constitution in J&K, after which people got their rights.”
The PM dubbed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s “mohabbat ki dukaan” as “a factory for fake videos”. “Not just Congress’s videos, but their slogans, intentions and promises are all fake. The party that governed for 60 years, giving so many PMs, just can’t speak the truth now. Stop this game of fake videos. You can mislead people momentarily, but they will punish you heavily.”
In Himmatnagar, Modi said INDIA bloc’s strategy was to cause anarchy and instability, and find new ways to insult him. In a riposte to Rahul’s charge that India would “burn” if Modi retained the reins, he asked why Congress didn’t honour Supreme Court’s judgment in the Shah Bano case if it respected the Constitution. “Muslim women were the worst sufferers of Congress’s vote-bank politics. We scrapped the triple talaq law that had ruined lakhs of families and gave them protection. Congress never showed the courage to do so.”
The PM said Congress clearly hadn’t learnt its lessons from the 2014 and 2019 poll defeats. He predicted that the grand old party would suffer its “worst-ever” performance this election.
Modi, whose poll caravan hit his native Gujarat ahead of the third phase of Lok Sabha polls on May 7, said at rallies in Deesa town of Banaskantha and Himmatnagar in adjoining Sabarkantha that Congress had been spreading canards about reservation and resorting to scare-mongering by saying the Constitution was under threat from BJP-led NDA.
“I challenge them (Congress and INDIA bloc) to give in writing that they will never extend reservation on religious grounds, and that reservations for SC/STs and OBCs won’t be taken away. But they won’t accept this challenge as something fishy is going on,” the PM said in Deesa.
On the opposition’s insinuation that NDA would abolish reservations in the long run, Modi said nothing could be farther from the truth. “Are they unaware that NDA has a clear majority (in Lok Sabha)? But we are not born to commit such a sin (as changing the Constitution).”
The PM said it was Congress that posed a threat to the Constitution by attempting to change the structure of reservation by reducing quotas for Dalits and others as part of its “appeasement” policy.
“They experimented with this in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In Karnataka, they declared all Muslims as OBCs and took away a portion of OBC reservations. Is this acceptable?” he asked the crowd.
Modi pointed out that despite being in office for so many years, Congress couldn’t implement constitutional safeguards for Dalits and OBCs in J&K. “But this is Modi. I nullified Article 370 and implemented the Constitution in J&K, after which people got their rights.”
The PM dubbed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s “mohabbat ki dukaan” as “a factory for fake videos”. “Not just Congress’s videos, but their slogans, intentions and promises are all fake. The party that governed for 60 years, giving so many PMs, just can’t speak the truth now. Stop this game of fake videos. You can mislead people momentarily, but they will punish you heavily.”
In Himmatnagar, Modi said INDIA bloc’s strategy was to cause anarchy and instability, and find new ways to insult him. In a riposte to Rahul’s charge that India would “burn” if Modi retained the reins, he asked why Congress didn’t honour Supreme Court’s judgment in the Shah Bano case if it respected the Constitution. “Muslim women were the worst sufferers of Congress’s vote-bank politics. We scrapped the triple talaq law that had ruined lakhs of families and gave them protection. Congress never showed the courage to do so.”
The PM said Congress clearly hadn’t learnt its lessons from the 2014 and 2019 poll defeats. He predicted that the grand old party would suffer its “worst-ever” performance this election.
Source Agencies
