Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath on Wednesday bandied around words like "Shariah", "Taliban" and "terrorism" while targeting the Congress, making it clear that the BJP would focus on the tone of polarisation and fiction set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi rather than the achievements of his government.
“The grandson is parroting his grandmother and claiming that he will eradicate poverty at once. You see his manifesto to understand how he will eradicate poverty. It is not only a dangerous plan but ridiculous too," the BJP's Hindutva mascot said after inaugurating a media centre at the state BJP headquarters in Lucknow on Wednesday, referring to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
"They (the Congress) are saying that they will conduct surveys of people’s properties, take it away from them and distribute it among themselves. They will take over the resources of the country,” Adityanath added, repeating the unsubstantiated claims Modi has been making about the main Opposition party's manifesto.
“I want to attract the attention of the people towards the manifesto of the INDI alliance. The then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had in the 1970s given the slogan of 'Garibi Hatao'. They couldn’t remove poverty because they didn’t have any such policy. If at all they started a scheme, it was marred by corruption. Today, we are seeing a more distorted face of their policy that they will snatch your properties and give to a particular community,” Adityanath said.
Claiming that "former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that Muslims had the first right over the country’s resources", Adityanath said: “This is why they want a caste census. They ruled for 65 years but didn’t give the SCs, STs and OBCs their rights. Now they want to take away their rights, divide them and interfere with their reservation rights…. The Congress wants to implement the Shariah law in the country, they want to support Talibani destruction.”
He appealed to the voters to support the BJP and said: “We are approaching the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. It is your life, your security, your country and your vote. Your one vote can bring back the phase of terrorism if it goes in the wrong direction. Your one vote in support of the BJP may finish terrorists on the other side of the border.”
Ajay Rai, the state Congress president, said: “The Modi government has already given public money to a few select corporate houses. Many of them ran away from India after taking several thousand crores of rupees from our banks. Those who have dumped black money in their warehouses are friends of the BJP government. The people have realised this and are voting to defeat the BJP. Obviously, the BJP leaders would lose their nerves and lie against us.”
