A day after conducting road show in Patna and offering sewa (service) at gurdwara Harmandir Sahib in the city on Monday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed three public meetings in Bihar — at Hajipur, Muzaffarpur, and Saran — slamming the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress over “appeasement, corruption and reservation”.
“Appeasement has been the biggest political weapon for the RJD-Congress and their priority is not you (the people) but their vote bank,” Mr. Modi said at his public meeting in Hajipur, while reminding people of the recent statement by RJD chief Lalu Prasad. “He (Mr. Prasad) recently said that Muslims should be given reservation, full reservation. They (the RJD and Congress) do not care about the Constitution and Babasaheb Ambedkar but I guarantee you, this is Modi’s guarantee, that as long as I am alive, no one can rob you of your rights. They cannot snatch your reservation,” Mr. Modi said.
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Mr. Prasad, however, had changed his view hours after his statement. “As written in the Constitution, there should not be reservation based on religion,” the RJD supremo had said.
“Let me tell you a statistic for your benefit that the BJP-NDA (National Democratic Alliance) have the maximum number of MPs from the reserved sections. Sixty per cent of Ministers in the Union Cabinet are from reserved communities,” Mr. Modi said, adding, “We (the BJP-NDA) made a son and daughter from Dalit communities Presidents of India and this is called sabka saath, sabka vikas.”
“In 10 years of the previous Congress government, only 35 lakh illegal rupees were seized by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) in the country, which could be carried in a school bag, but in the last 10 years of the Modi regime, a total of 2,200 crore rupees have been seized, which requires 70 vehicles for transportation,” Mr. Modi went on to say in a sharp attack on the Opposition. “This is why they (Opposition parties) keep slamming the ED these days,” he added while addressing a public meeting at Kutubpur in Hajipur.
Mr. Modi heaped praise on NDA candidate Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJP-RV), saying he “has been an attentive MP in Parliament and a successful MP”. “Your vote for him (Mr. Chirag Paswan) will directly benefit me. Vote for your future, the bright future of your children, for your country’s future, to form the NDA government at the Centre,” Mr. Modi said.
He also recalled his old association with the late Ram Vilas Paswan, father of Mr. Chirag Paswan, who represented the Hajipur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat eight times.
Pashupati Kumar Paras, sitting MP from Hajipur and estranged uncle of Mr. Chirag Paswan, a Union Minister who resigned from the Cabinet when his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) was denied even a single seat under the NDA’s seat sharing arrangement in Bihar for the ongoing Lok Sabha election, was conspicuous by his absence at the rallies addressed by Mr. Modi.
At the public meeting in Patahi, Muzaffarpur, where the PM campaigned for BJP candidate Raj Bhushan Nishad, he attacked the Opposition Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, calling its leaders “cowards who are scared of Pakistan’s nuclear power”. “The India bloc seems to have leaders who are scared of Pakistan and have nightmares over its nuclear power,” Mr. Modi said in a veiled reference to a recent remark by National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah.
In a response to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s earlier remark that “POK will be merged with India”, Dr. Abdullah had said that Pakistan was a country with “atom bombs, and not wearing bangles”. “If Pakistan does not wear bangles, we will make the country wear them. I knew they (Pakistan) did not have the food grains but now I have come to know that they do not even have adequate supply of bangles,” the PM said.
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At the public meeting in Saran, campaigning for BJP candidate Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mr. Modi said he was a “servant of the people of India who is available round the clock, 24X7”.
“The NDA government worked more for development in the last 10 years than the Congress did in 60 years,” he said, hitting out again at the Opposition Congress and RJD.
“I have no waaris (successor). The common people of the country are my waaris,” Mr. Modi said. “They (the Opposition) will give away reservations to Muslims pursuing their vote bank politics,” he said, going on to add, “But as long as I am alive, I will not let this happen.”
Mr. Rudy is contesting against RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s second daughter, Rohini Acharya, for the Saran Lok Sabha constituency.
Published - May 13, 2024 12:28 pm IST
