In his campaign blitzkrieg in poll-bound Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 December, Sunday addressed multiple rallies in Bharuch, Surendrangar and Rajkot. During his campaign trial, the Prime Minister heavily lashed out at the Congress party, accusing it of dynasty politics, dividing people on caste, religious lines and their ‘misplaced priorities’.
He also hit out at the Congress over the upcoming election of its president, alleging that the opposition party has a history of rigging (organisational) elections.
“The Congress changes colour time and again, creates a wall between brothers, it wants to make urban areas fight with rural areas of the country, illiterate fight with literates and poor fight with the rich," he said in Bharuch.
"They keep you busy in fighting with each other. You may die, but the Congress will eat malai (cream)," he said, launching a broadside against the opposition party apparently for having an alliance with caste leaders such as Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor ahead of the state polls.
Sharpening his attack on Congress leaders such as former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram, he told a rally in Bharuch district that by opposing the bullet train, the party stooped to a such a level that it was opposing the country's development.
Recently, Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram, during their visits to Gujarat, had said the bullet train project was among the NDA government's "misplaced priorities".
Dr Manmohan Singh ji, your government had made an announcement before 2012 (Gujarat Assembly) elections from Delhi about the bullet train, but your talks with Japan did not go down well as the loan Japan was offering we could not afford.PM Narendra Modi
But, Modi said, his government negotiated the loan at a very low interest rate and the work on the bullet train has started.
My problem is, you can oppose the BJP but why stoop to such a low level that you are opposing development of the country. We say, there is no other way than development. We have wasted 70 years in the fight over of casteism, in dynastic politics, in yours and mine, but now the country is determined to go on the path of development
Everybody Knows The Results: PM on Congress President Election
"An election is going on in the Congress party for its President. What the result will be everybody knows," PM Modi said at a rally in Surendranagar.
Modi said a youth called Shezad (Poonawala), who is a (Congress) party worker, has raised questions over the process of the election and alleged that it is being rigged.
They keep on muttering words like tolerance, tolerance, tolerance... but the party has brought out a diktat to silence this youth. The party has gagged him from all WhatsApp groups. He has been collectively boycotted by that party. If you do not have democracy at home, how can you practice it in the country?
He went on to allege that this has been a practice with the Congress party.
"Sardar Patel got more votes than Jawaharlal Nehru when the Congress party had (then) met to decide who will be the prime minster of the country. But that the election was rigged and Nehru won," he alleged.
Claiming the same thing happened with Morarji Desai, he said, "They have the history of rigging elections." Earlier in Bharuch, Modi said his government has recently taken steps to delist bamboo from the tree category and classified it as a grass so that the tribal people can grow it and sell it in forest areas.
Targeting Rahul Gandhi, Modi said the Congress government did not do it for the last 70 years.
"Those who do not know what is to be done with potato how would they know what is to be done with bamboo," he said.
Rahul Gandhi's edited clip from his speech on potato has been doing rounds in social media in which he is seen saying that the BJP will invent a machine in which if 'aloo' (potato) is put from one side, then gold will come out from the other side.
PM Modi Mocks Rahul Over Charge of Giving Land to Industrialist
Making a veiled reference to Gandhi, he said, "One leader during his speech said Modi gave 48,000 crore acres of land to an industrialist. The area he is talking about is three times the size of land available on the earth. I don't know what to do... to laugh or cry."
"What can you expect from the Congress when the person expected to lead the party cannot understand such basic things, the Prime Minister said in Rajkot.
Gandhi had during one of his rallies in Gujarat alleged that Modi had given a vast tract of land to an industrialist in Mundra of Kutch district.
Referring to the meme tweeted by the Youth Congress, Modi said the Congress was using abusive language against him.
"It is their 'sanskar' (values). I have not studied in an English medium school but in a government school where they taught me how to lead life," Modi said.
Rashtrabhakti Drove Us to Help People of All Faiths: PM
PM Modi on Sunday said rashtrabhakti motivated him and his government to help people of various faiths, including Christians, and dubbed as fatwa a letter issued by Gandhinagar archbishop.
The Prime Minister was referring to the letter issued last month by Thomas Macwan, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Gandhinagar, in which he had appealed to Christians to pray to save the country from "nationalist forces".
I was shocked to see a religious person releasing a ‘fatwa’ (diktat) saying uproot the nationalist forces. It is nationalism that guides us to help every Indian in any part of the world
He also listed several examples wherein the central government had brought back Christian missionaries as well as nurses stranded in conflict zones across the world.
Along with Indians, we have rescued citizens of almost 40 countries from Yemen, as they were stranded there due to war. We did not see their religion or language they speak. It was our nationalism and humanitarian values which guided us. Our nurses from Kerala, mostly Christians, were stranded in Iraq. They were in the custody of terrorists. Can the prime minister or any citizen of India sleep in such situation, when our daughters are in custody of terrorists?
In 2014, a total of 46 Indian nurses, who were held captive by the Islamic State militants in Iraq for about a month, were evacuated after the successful intervention by the Union government.
The Prime Minister also recalled how his government used "all resources" to bring back Keralite priest Tom Uzhunnalil who was freed after being kept in captivity suspectedly by the ISIS for 18 months in strife-torn Yemen.
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