Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Making full use of the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge branding him as “Ravan” to appeal to the sentiments of the voters in Gujarat, the prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lambasted the grand old party for taking turns to hurl “choicest abuses” at him.
“I am the son of Gujarat who has been raised by you. Is not an insult of all of you that the Congress abuse me as “Ravan?” he asked and added, the Congress had failed to realise that it was not proper to call someone “Ravan” in the land of “Rambhakts” (devotees of Lord Ram). “The Congress is not aware that the more muck you (Congress) throw, you will see those many more lotuses blooming,” he added.
Addressing a series of election meetings in the north and central Gujarat regions which will go to polls in the second phase on December 5, Modi took all the Congress leaders in one sweep and said they seem to have started a fierce competition among themselves who could hurl the stronger abuses on him. “I am not surprised that the Congress after a series of electoral defeats could lose mental balance but what surprises me is the fact that they don’t feel any remorse for the abuses hurled in a fit of rage and apologise for calling the prime minister of the country names. No such apology is forthcoming which show that they don’t even feel of having done anything wrong by hurling abuses at the son of Gujarat,” Modi said.
Modi had made full use of his “son of the soil” status in the Gujarat elections and this time Kharge send him the opportunity to revive the image. “There is a competition in the Congress on who will insult Modi more, use bigger, sharper insults,” Modi said. “A few days back, a Congress leader said Modi will die a dog’s death, another said Modi will die Hitler’s death. Another said if I get a chance, I’ll kill Modi myself…Someone says Ravan, someone says “Rakshash” (demon), someone says cockroach… I’m not surprised that Congress calls Modi names, I’m surprised – anyone would be – that despite using such words, the Congress never has remorse. Congress thinks it is their right to insult Modi, the Prime Minister of this country,” he said.
Mr Kharge had made the comments while addressing a rally in Ahmedabad earlier this week. “Modi ji is Prime Minister. Forgetting his work, he keeps campaigning in corporation elections, MLA elections, MP elections, everywhere… All the time he’s talking about himself – ‘You don’t have to look at anyone else, just look at Modi and vote’. How many times do we see your face? How many forms do you have? Do you have 100 heads like Ravan?” Mr Kharge had said.
“We know that Congress doesn’t even accept the identity of Lord Ram. They have no faith in the Ram temple in Ayodhya and have even refuted the existence of Ram Setu but they brought out the Ravan from the Ramayana,” Modi said touching the religious sentiments of the Gujarat voters.
“The strength that Gujarat has given me troubles Congress. A Congress leader came here and said we’ll show Modi his aukat in this election. The Congress felt still more needs to be said, so they sent Kharge here. I respect Kharge but he must have had to say what had been asked. Congress doesn’t know that Gujarat is a state of Ram bhaktas. Here he said Modi is Ravan with 100 heads,” the Prime Minister said. He also touched upon the “one family theme” for the Congress party and said, “If they had any faith in democracy, they would not have done this. But their faith is not in democracy but in one family.”
Largely concentrating his attack on the Congress ignoring the Aam Aadmi Party, Modi also recalled the Congress party’s “Garibi Hatao” slogan and claimed that “poverty actually increased under the grand old party’s rule as it only raised slogans and misguided people instead of doing any concrete work for them.”
“For decades, the Congress has been saying only one thing – Garibi Hatao (eliminate poverty). People gave you power to do that, but you were asking people to remove poverty. The only thing they did was to raise slogans, give promises and misguide people. That was the reason why poverty actually increased during its regime,” Mr. Modi alleged.
Due to the previous Congress-led government’s policies, poor citizens could not play an active role in the economy, he said, adding that although banks were nationalised under the Congress rule, the poor could not open their bank accounts. The Prime Minister claimed that poor people, tribals and those from Other Backward Classes (OBC) community were not given priority in education, health and industrial sector by the Congress during its government.
Referring to Droupadi Murmu’s election as the President earlier this year, Modi alleged that the opposition party was not in favour of a tribal woman occupying the country’s top constitutional post and that was why it fielded its own candidate. “She (Murmu) is the pride of every tribal family and every citizen. But Congress had opposed her candidature. They did not want a tribal woman as India’s President. That is why they have fielded a candidate against her. Otherwise, she would have been elected unanimously,” he said.
