Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s comments on population control through girls’ education as “obscene” and “shameful” and lambasted the opposition INDIA bloc, which he referred to as “INDI alliance”, for not daring to speak against it.
Addressing a public meeting in Guna in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the PM, without naming Kumar, said, “Nobody can imagine what obscene talks the leader did about women in the assembly… They have this kind of attitude towards women. They cannot do welfare of people.”
Kumar had courted a controversy on Tuesday with a speech on the importance of educating women in birth control using gestures and descriptive language. He apologised on Wednesday after facing widespread condemnation for his comments from different quarters.
The PM also targeted the Congress over the ₹506 crore alleged payment to Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Bhagel by Mahadev App owner from Dubai and the alleged “Red Dairy” of Rajasthan, which reportedly provides details about corruption by chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
“Modi has punctured all tyres of Congress’ corruption machine,” the PM said.
The ED has issued a statement claiming ₹506 crore was given to Bhagel whereas in Rajasthan, former minister in Gehlot cabinet, Rajendra Gudla had claimed to have a “Red Dairy” having details of money paid by Gehlot to MLAs. Gudla is contesting Rajasthan state assembly election on a ticket of the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) faction.
“People gave power to the Congress in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, but their chief ministers were found involved in “satta” (betting) and generating black money,” Modi said.
To counter Congress’s charge of 50% commission by the BJP government, the PM said that the Congress will introduce 85% commission in Madhya Pradesh, if it comes to power. He also referred to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s comments that of a rupee only 15 paisa reaches the poor in India.
Modi also said that Congress leaders are saying they will complain to the Election Commission about his promise to extend for five years the free ration scheme for the poor people. “Let them do this sin, I will continue to do good work for the people,” he said.
He also said that people cannot trust Congress guarantees as they misled people for elections in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, where the grand old party snatched power from the BJP in past one year.
The PM alleged that Congress president (Mallikarjun Kharge) is controlled by a remote. “Congress president is controlled by a remote. He can’t do much. When the remote works, he abuses Sanatan (Dharma). Yesterday, when the remote was not working, he spoke about Pandavas and said there are five Pandavas in the BJP. We are proud that we are walking on the path laid by the Pandavas,” Modi said.
On Tuesday at Thatipur in Gwalior, Kharge termed the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax (IT) department, PM Modi and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the ‘panch pandavas’ of the BJP. “But these are not the actual pandavas (of epic Mahabharata fame), but the ones that need to be defeated,” Kharge clarified.
Congress spokesperson JP Dhanopia said the BJP is controlled by the RSS unlike the Congress, which is a democratic party. “For this reason, the PM sees remote control everywhere. He should not make such comments about president of another national party,” he said. On PM’s 85% corruption charge, he said that the PM has admitted that the BJP government in MP takes 50% commission.
Modi said during his third tenure as PM, he will take the country’s economy among the top three in the world, and his fight against corruption will continue. “In 2014, when we came to power, the country’s economy was at the 10th position. Gradually it moved to 9th, 8th, 7th and 6th but nobody was talking about it. When it reached the 5th position and left behind the UK, which ruled the nation for 200 years, everybody was surprised and started looking at India,” he said.
The Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May 2024 and five states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram — are facing elections this month.
The PM also said that earlier there were only two mobile factories and now India has over 200 mobiles factories, a reason for people getting the mobile phone very cheap and India exporting mobiles. “Congress never promoted local products and Make in India like BJP did,” he said, asking people to take selfie of local products during Diwali and post it on NAMO App on Diwali.
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