Modi says Pakistan eager to see Rahul Gandhi as PM
In four back-to-back rallies in his home State ahead of the May 7 election in Gujarat, Modi claims ‘Congress is dying and Pakistan is crying’, takes a dig at ‘vote jihad’ remark by SP leader
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Pakistan was eager to see Congress leader Rahul Gandhi become the Prime Minister of India. “The enemies of the nation, including Pakistan, want a weak government in India. They want a corrupt government which was there before 2014. Modi’s strong government does not bow down to anyone,” Mr. Modi said in Gujarat, where voting will take place on May 7.
The Prime Minister’s statement comes a day after former Pakistan Minister Ch. Fawad Hussain shared a video featuring Mr. Gandhi on ◣ (formerly Twitter) with the captioned, “Rahul Gandhi on re”.
Addressing election rallies in four dierent Lok Sabha seats — Anand, Surendranagar, Junagadh and Jamnagar — in his home State, the Prime Minister reiterated his claim that the Congress intends to create reservations for Muslims in government jobs and education “by snatching away the rights of the marginalised
sections”.
The Congress’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha poll does not talk about religion-based reservations for any community.
“When Congress released its manifesto, I alerted the country... I could see the image of the Muslim League in their manifesto,” he said in his address in Jamnagar. Bringing up of Pakistan in poll campaign and equating the Opposition party with the neighbouring country was reminiscent of similar sentiments during the runup to the 2017 Assembly poll in Gujarat, when he had accused former PM Manmohan Singh of “holding a secret meeting with diplomats of Pakistan to
conspire” against Mr. Modi.
In central Gujarat’s Anand, the Prime Minister said the Congress was “dying and Pakistan was crying”. “You all might have known by now that Pakistani leaders are praying for the Congress’s victory... to make the Shehzada [referring to Rahul Gandhi] of Congress the PM of India.”
Mr. Modi, who has also served as the Chief Minister of the State for 13 years, had in past elections as well equated the Opposition party with the neighbouring country and accused it of doing “appeasement politics”. In 2012 and 2017 Assembly polls, Mr. Modi had said that if voted to power, the Congress would make Ahmed Patel, former Congress
veteran from Gujarat, the CM of the State.
In Junagadh, the PM said if Sardar Patel was not present, Junagadh would have gone to Pakistan, bringing up the issue of the then Junagadh Nawab’s assertion to make it a part of Pakistan during Independence.
Mr. Modi also took a dig at the “vote jihad” remark by Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s niece and Samajwadi Party leader Maria Alam during a recent rally in Uttar Pradesh. He said that the country had heard of “love jihad” but now a Congress leader has talked about “vote jihad” to defeat Lord Ram.
Kshatriya anger
In Jamnagar, the PM called on the former royal family member Shatrusalyasinhji Jadeja. The meeting was seen as a bid to pacify the Kshatriya community, which is on warpath with the ruling party over the controversial remarks by the BJP’s Rajkot candidate and Union Minister Parshottam Rupala about former princely families and their alliances with the British during colonial times.