Ranchi
In his back-to-back election rallies in Jharkhand as also in Odisha on the last day of campaigning for the fourth phase, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday cited a senior Congress leader’s remarks about Ram Mandir’s purification to launch a scathing attack against the opposition party, which, he said, had a mind-set of the 18th Century.
“President Droupadi Murmu recently visited Ram Mandir. She offered puja inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Mandir. She sought the blessings of Ram Lalla for the well-being of the country. The next day, one of the Congress leaders (MPCC chief Nana Patole) said that the Ram Mandir would be purified with Ganga water (when INDIA bloc comes to power). Isn’t this an insult to the President, the country, mothers and sisters and the whole tribal society,” Modi asked, campaigning in Naxal-infested Simaria block in Chatra district of Jharkhand.
He had cited the instance and posed the same query to the masses earlier in Bargarh (Odisha) too. “The Congress has a mindset of the 18th Century. It has no right to remain in politics,” Modi remarked.
Simaria shares its borders with Hazaribagh. Both Chatra and Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seats were won by the BJP in 2019. None of these seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes but Modi cited the instance in his bid to corner the Adivasi votes in the tribal State. The BJP has been having a strong support base in these constituencies since its Jan Sangh days.
Maintaining that the BJP made a tribal daughter of Odisha the President of India but the Congress and its allies have been repeatedly disrespecting her right from day one. The JMM and Congress are unable to digest the welfare and interests of tribals, he alleged.
This apart, in one of his fiercest attacks yet, Modi asserted that the Congress will win seats less than the age of its senior leader Rahul Gandhi. Born on June 19, 1970, Rahul is aged 53.
The Prime Minister referred Rahul as “Shehzada” (prince) and said his party will win seats less than his age in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The Congress could win only 52 seats in 2019, which was less than 10 percent of the total seats mandated to stake claim to the post of Leader of Opposition in the lower house.
“They have now begun advocating a merger of all like-minded forces. This, in turn, may help them (read Congress) get the recognition of the ‘main’ opposition party in the new Lok Sabha,” he said.
This time round, the BJP has preferred replacing its sitting MPs. Kali Charan Singh will be contesting the Chatra seat and Manish Jaiswal is in fray in Hazaribagh.
Sitting MPs Sunil Singh from Chatra and Jayant Sinha from Hazaribagh were present on the dais and expressed solidarity with their ‘likely’ successors, even as Modi went ahead with his real mission.
“The JMM’s only agenda is that it will neither do its job nor let anyone else do their work. And, if mountains (piles) of currency notes could be recovered from the premises of a Jharkhand minister’s private secretary and his servant, what to talk about the Minister himself. And, this is not the first instance,” he said.
Earlier, the currency notes counting machines became dysfunctional while negotiating the seizures made on the premises of a Congress MP (Dhiraj Sahu)
“But, who can fix these scamsters? Shouldn’t they be taken to task? Will it be possible without a ‘strong and stable’ government at the Centre? And, who can ‘provide and lead’ such a government? This you will have to decide,” he said.
