Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of imprisoning Lord Ganesh in Karnataka and portrayed the Nehru-Gandhis as enemies of the deprived sections, using his first election rally in Haryana to woo both the Hindutva and Dalit vote banks.
“Appeasement has become the biggest goal of the Congress. Today, the situation has become such that under Congress rule in Karnataka, even Ganapatiji is being put behind bars,” Modi told a rally in Kurukshetra, alluding to the communal tensions in Mandya, Karnataka.
Communal clashes had broken out in a part of Mandya during a Ganesh Chaturthi procession, prompting the state government to ban assemblies.
Modi said that while the entire country was celebrating the Ganesh festival, the Congress was “creating obstacles before” the worship of the god.
The Prime Minister went all out against the Congress — deemed to be on a strong wicket in poll-bound Haryana — accusing it of having become a “new form of urban Naxal”.
“The Congress has no shame in lying, it tells a new lie every day,” he alleged.
Modi then tried to paint the Nehru-Gandhis as enemies of reservation, following up on fellow BJP leaders’ efforts to twist comments that Rahul Gandhi had made in the US last week.
Rahul had said that one could think of abolishing reservations only when India became a fair place. “And India is not a fair place right now,” the leader of the Opposition had stressed, clearly opposing the idea of scrapping reservations.
However, led by Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP leaders have been accusing Rahul of having said he would do away with reservations.
Modi alluded obliquely to Rahul’s remarks in the US. “Now these people have said that if they come to power, they will end reservations. This is the truth of this family,” he said.
To buttress the point, he claimed that former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi were firmly opposed to reservations.
“If there is any entity in India that is the biggest opponent of Dalits, OBCs and tribals, it is the Congress family,” he told the rally.
“The Congress should listen carefully — as long as Modi is here, I will not allow even an iota of the reservation given by Babasaheb Ambedkar to be looted or taken away. This is Modi’s guarantee.”
The Prime Minister’s intent seemed to be to court Dalits, who make up a significant chunk of the voters in Haryana but often feel marginalised in the Jat-dominated state.
Modi referred to the killings and atrocities Dalits had faced on the watch of previous Congress governments in Haryana, and urged the community to reject the party.
Before the Haryana rally, the Prime Minister had addressed one in Doda, Jammu. Trying to connect the two, he accused the Congress of demanding the restoration of Article 370 and asked the Haryana crowd if they would allow it.
He claimed that the abrogation of Article 370 had inflicted a blow to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, where soldiers from Haryana had sacrificed their lives to save the country. However, the region, particularly Jammu, has in recent months seen a spurt in terrorism.
“The Congress is supporting (demanding the) restoration of Article 370. The Congress wants to bring back the era when stones were thrown (in Kashmir) at our brave soldiers from Haryana. The Congress wants to bring back that period of terror and separatism,” Modi alleged.