The Asian Age

Cong is looting Telangana by collecting ‘RR tax’, says Modi

- NEERAJ KUMAR

At an election rally in Zaheerabad Lok Sabha constituen­cy in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the Telugu film titled RRR and “RR tax” under the Revanth Reddyled Congress government in the state to strike a chord with the voters. He said while the film earned the state a lot of praise, the RR tax has shamed them.

In a veiled attack on the Telangana chief minister, Mr Modi said, “The RR tax is the subject of discussion at every corner. Contractor­s and industrial­ists have been forced to cough up the RR Tax by back-door means. This black money is routing to Delhi and the Telangana people are aware of such black deeds and are worried.”

Targeting the Congress at a huge public meeting in Chilver under Zaheerabad Lok Sabha constituen­cy, Mr Modi said the Congress’ hand symbol symbolises five evils — false slogans and false promises, votebank politics, promotion of criminals and the mafia, parivarwaa­d (family) politics and corruption.

“When the world was marching ahead, the Congress pushed the

◗ THE PM said the Congress’ hand symbol symbolises five evils — false slogans and false promises, votebank politics, promotion of criminals and the mafia, parivarwaa­d (family) politics and corruption

country into corruption with policy paralysis. The NDA government, with a lot of difficulty, pulled the country out of the mess. The Congress once again wants to take the country in the same old way,” Mr Modi said, listing out the BJP-led NDA government’s many decisions to put the country back on track.

Mr Modi said that people have seen how a decisive and strong government scripted history by fulfilling the 500-year-old dreams of Hindus by constructi­ng the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. When he asked people who did it, people responded by shouting “Modi Modi.”

Mr Modi responded by saying: “The vote from each one of you enabled the constructi­on of the Ram temple. The vote from each one of you empowers our commitment.”

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the Congress government in Telangana state had put in place a number of restrictio­ns and tried hard to prevent the Shobha Yatra on the Rama Navami festival for the sake of votes from a

particular section of people. “When the Congress was elected with a record number of MLAs and MPs in the united Andhra Pradesh in 2009, the party, instead of strengthen­ing backward castes, SCs and STs, took away their constituti­onal rights, extended the same to Muslims and made the state their laboratory,” he said.

When 26 castes, from the Marathas to the Lingayats, were seeking inclusion in the OBC list, the Congress was not interested in their demand but included Muslims in the OBC list.

Reiteratin­g that he will continue reservatio­ns for the dalits, adivasis and OBCs till he is alive, Mr Modi repeated three times that “Modi will not allow giving dalits, adivasis and OBCs reservatio­ns to Muslims.”

Charging that the Congress is spreading lies about reservatio­ns, Mr Modi asked the Opposition party leaders why they did not support the demand for social justice for the Madiga community. “Why have they not supported the categorisa­tion of SC reservatio­ns?” he asked, reiteratin­g his commitment to the genuine rights of the Madiga community.

Stating that he was making an important announceme­nt from the land of Telangana, Mr Modi said that his government, in its third term, will celebrate in a grand manner the diamond jubilee of the Constituti­on (in 2025) by exposing at every street corner “the sins of the Congress and its leaders” by listing out how they played fraud with the Constituti­on.

Mr Modi said that Jawaharlal Nehru had removed the images from the Ramayana and the

Mahabharat­a from the Constituti­on. Nehru intentiona­lly disconnect­ed all the links that connected the rich heritage of the country with the Constituti­on and insulted B.R. Ambedkar.

He said Indira Gandhi had imposed the Emergency, curbed press freedom and jailed nationalis­ts. Rajiv Gandhi committed a big sin against the Constituti­on by enacting a law to curb media rights.

“The Yuvraj (referring to Rahul Gandhi) committed the fourth sin by tearing up the papers of Cabinet decisions, thereby insulting the Prime Minister and his Cabinet,” Mr Modi said, referring to the Congress leaders tearing up an ordinance to save convicted legislator­s from disqualifi­cation.

“The Constituen­t Assembly discussed the issue threadbare for three long years and decided not to extend reservatio­ns on the basis of religion. But Yuvraj and his team, for votebank politics, have eaten away the rights of dalits, adivasis and OBCs and extended the same to Muslims by the backdoor method,” he explained.

In a message to

Congress, the PM said that the Constituti­on is a holy book for him to run the government. “As CM of Gujarat, I celebrated 60 years of the Constituti­on (in 2010) when no other chief minister in the country did so. The Constituti­on was placed on the top of an elephant. I walked along with it,” he recalled.

Giving examples of how Congress leaders violate parliament­ary principles when they are not in power, Mr Modi asked them not to fool the people by shedding crocodile tears.

 ?? — S. SURENDER REDDY ?? Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union minister G. Kishan Reddy and others during an election campaign in Telangana’s Zaheerabad on Tuesday.
— S. SURENDER REDDY Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union minister G. Kishan Reddy and others during an election campaign in Telangana’s Zaheerabad on Tuesday.

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