Hindustan Times (West UP)

Cong must shun divide and rule strategy: Modi

- Letters@hindustant­imes.com ANI

AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday targeted the Congress over the participat­ion of Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar in the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi, and said the opposition party must shun its “divide and rule” strategy to win back the trust of the people of Gujarat.

Addressing a poll rally in Palitana town of Bhavnagar district in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates, Modi said the people of Gujarat have rejected the Congress because the state had suffered a lot due to the party’s policy of inciting people of one region or community against another.

The people of Gujarat are not ready to help those who support

“elements wanting to break India”, he said.

PM Modi, during his previous campaign rallies in Gujarat, had also targeted Rahul Gandhi for walking with Medha Patkar during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Elections for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly are scheduled on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

On Monday, Modi accused the Congress of trying to disrupt the reach of the Narmada water to the parched region of Saurashtra.

He said the people of Gujarat will never forgive those who

were walking with a person who was responsibl­e for stalling the Sardar Sarovar dam project for 40 years.

Further targeting the opposition party, the PM said, “The Congress’s ideology is to divide and rule. Before Gujarat became a separate state, it (Congress) made Gujaratis and Marathis fight against each other. Later, the Congress incited people of different castes and communitie­s to fight against each other. Gujarat suffered a lot because of such sins of the Congress.” The smart people of Gujarat understood this strategy of the Congress and came together to show the door to such “divisive forces”, the PM said. The situation changed after the BJP came to power, he said, adding Gujarat has been on the path of developmen­t for the last 20 years.

“The Congress is losing because the people of Gujarat have shown unity. The Congress must shun casteism, communalis­m, vote bank politics and divide and rule (ideology) to win back the trust of people of Gujarat, because they are not at all ready to help those who support elements wanting to break India,” the PM said.

On Sunday, Modi said the Congress views terrorism from “the prism of vote bank”, accusing it of crying in support of the terrorists at the time of the Batla House encounter in 2008.

Terrorism was at its peak under the Congress-led United Progressiv­e Alliance (UPA) government, the PM said at a public meeting in Mehmedabad town of Gujarat’s Kheda district.

“The Congress views terrorism from the prism of vote bank. Not only Congress, but many like-minded parties have come up now who view terrorism as a shortcut to achieving success and this small party’s hunger for power is even bigger,” he said, without naming the party. The PM accused the Congress of going soft on terror in a bid to protect its vote bank.

“Gujarat had long been a target of terrorism. The people of Gujarat were killed in explosions in Surat and Ahmedabad. The Congress was at the Centre then, we asked them to target terrorism but they targeted me instead. Terrorism was at the peak in the country,” he said.

“In Gujarat, we kept track of terrorist sleeper cells and arrested terrorists,” the PM said referring to the action taken by the BJP government when he was the chief minister. “Your one vote in 2014 has created a lot of difference in killing terrorism in the country.”

“Terrorists have to think a lot even before attacking our borders. But Congress questions our surgical strike. The youth of the state, aged up to 25 years, have never seen what a curfew looks like. I have to save them from the bomb explosions, only BJP’s double-engine government can do this,” PM Modi said a reference to the BJP’s government­s both at the Centre and in states.

The Gujarat elections are expected to be a three-cornered contest, with the BJP launching a campaign blitzkrieg to retain power, the Congress seeking to gain lost ground and the Aam Aadmi Party looking to make inroads in the state.

Narendra Modi was scheduled to address four rallies in Kutch’s Anjar, Jamnagar’s Gordhanpur, Bhavnagar’s Palitana, Jamnagar’s Gordhanpar, and Rajkot on Monday.

The Assembly elections in Gujarat are scheduled to be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5, whose results will be declared on December 8, which coincides with the result date of the Himachal Pradesh polls.

While voting in constituen­cies in Kheda district will be held in both phases, Surat and Bharuch will vote on December 1. In the last elections in 2017, BJP won 99 seats and the Congress came close with 77 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power for the last 27 years with Narendra Modi being the longest-serving chief minister of the state.

 ?? ?? PM Narendra Modi addresses a meeting at Palitana, in Bhavnagar on Monday.
PM Narendra Modi addresses a meeting at Palitana, in Bhavnagar on Monday.

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