‘Congress deceiving Muslims’

In a rally in Aligarh, Narendra Modi also targets the state government for riots in UP

Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Congress of ignoring the Muslims, saying the community had largely remained poor despite decades of Congress rule.

Addressing a huge gathering on ‘Numaish Maidan’ here, Modi, in an obvious attempt to woo the minority community, claimed that they were far better off in Gujarat. He blamed those practising vote-bank politics for such plight of the Muslims, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and flayed the Congress for failing to implement welfare schemes for the minority.

Well aware that he was addressing a gathering in a city having a sizeable Muslim population and home to the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University, Modi began with issues related to the Muslims and targeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had addressed a rally on the same ground a day before on Friday, mocking her claims about minority welfare.

“The UPA government led by the Congress had declared a 15-point programme for minority welfare and 90 Muslimdominated districts, including 15 in UP, were chosen across the nation for benefiting minorities. However, when a member asked in Parliament about the progress of such schemes for minority welfare, the government’s reply was that not a single paisa had been spent on this scheme, planned for the betterment of the poor among the Muslims,” Modi said.

“The statistics about the plight of Muslims living in urban area expose claims of those playing vote bank politics in the name of secularism. More than 50% of Muslims living in urban areas of Uttar Pradesh face poverty while the percentage is as high as 60% in Bihar,” he said. In contrast, only 14% of urban Muslims in Gujarat were poor, proving that the minority was far better off in Gujarat.

Modi alleged that 700 riots took place under the present Central government, out of which 250 were in a state led by Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party.

“These parties, including the SP, BSP and the Congress are hand in glove in Delhi but go for ‘noora-kushti’ (mock duel) when they come to you,” he said.

Modi also promised to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks and utilize it for welfare of the poor, if voted to power.