Modi ups ante amid row over communal pitches
JAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi doubled down on his charges that the Congress intended to redistribute both wealth and reservation benefits to Muslims on Tuesday, reiterating comments first made on Sunday, that have caused a political firestorm over the past two days.
In Tonk, at his last scheduled rally in Rajasthan which has 13 of its 25 seats going to the polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 26 (12 voted in the first phase), Modi referred to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comments in 2006, in which he had said that the minorities, particularly Muslims, should have first claim over the country’s resources, and said that this was not an isolated comment, but part of a larger Congress policy thought process. “After the Congress formed the government in 2004, one of the first things it did was to try and snatch the reservation of SC, ST and OBC and give it to Muslims… this was a pilot project that Congress wanted to try out in the entire country. Between 2004 and 2010, the Congress tried four times to implement Muslim reservation in Andhra Pradesh but due to legal obstacles and an alert Supreme Court, the Congress plan failed,” said Modi.
The Congress has alleged that the BJP is deliberately misconstruing Manmohan Singh’s comments, and the then Prime Minister had only spoken of the need to empower the marginalised, including Muslims.
Opposition political parties have accused the Prime Minister of communalising the Lok Sabha campaign, with a Congress delegation meeting the Election Commission of India on Monday to argue that his utterances were a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Speaking at the rally in Tonk on Tuesday, however, Modi said that the Congress had made such attempts in the past, and alleged that the opposition had gone into “meltdown”, because he had exposed the truth.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister also alleged that in Karnataka, the Congress had attempted to snatch the reservation benefits to SC, ST and OBC communities.
“The Congress made all these attempts knowing well that this is against the spirit of the Constitution but it is not bothered… they do not bother about Babasaheb Ambedkar. When the BJP came to power in Karnataka, the first thing we did was to end the Muslim quota which the Congress had carved out of the SC, ST, OBC reservation and restored it to the SC, ST, OBC. This made Congress livid. Modi understands the Constitution, Modi is dedicated to the Constitution, Modi worships Babsaheb Ambedkar,” he said.