Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday slammed senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh for declining the invitation to attend the consecration of Ram Lalla’s idol in Ayodhya, saying their move was guided purely by vote-bank politics.
The BJP leader said the Congress neglected the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya for nearly 70 years and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made it a reality and paved the way for consecration of Ram Lalla’s idol on January 22. Campaigning in Khilchipur, which is part of Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat, Shah also mocked Congress candidate and former MP chief Digvijaya Singh and asked the gathering to give the latter’s political career a “grand farewell”.
Shah recited the Urdu couplet “aashiq ka janaaza hai, zara dhoom se nikle” (it is a lover’s funeral procession, let it move ahead grandly) to take a swipe at Singh, who is up against BJP’s sitting MP Rodmal Nagar.
“Do you know why shehzada Rahul Gandhi and Diggi Raja (Digvijaya Singh) did not attend the consecration of Ram Lalla’s idol at Ayodhya? Because they are afraid of their vote-bank and therefore, they should never be pardoned,” he noted.
Shah lashed out at the Congress for continuing with the Article 370, that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, for a long time because of which, he said, terrorism flourished in the erstwhile state and people were unable to even hoist the national tricolour. The Home Minister pointed out that the Modi government not only abrogated the contentious constitutional provision on August 5, 2019, but also ensured the tricolour flew high on the country’s head (J&K).
Shah maintained the Modi government ended terrorism and Naxalism by entering their den (‘ghar me ghuskar’) and conducting a surgical strike inside Pakistan post-Pulwama terror attack. Rahul Gandhi, on advice of Singh, included in the Congress manifesto a promise that if a party-led government came to power at the Centre, it will “introduce personal law in the country,” the BJP’s star campaigner claimed.
Shah asked people whether controversial practices like instant triple talaq, banned by the Modi government in 2019, should be reintroduced, and criticised Singh for linking “bhagwa” (saffron) colour with terrorism.
Hitting out at Digvijaya Singh, the Union Home Minister said, “Tell bantadhar, we won’t allow you to turn Rajgarh into a BIMARU (term used to describe socially and economically unwell areas) district.” ‘Bantadhar’ is a term the BJP uses for Singh to allege that his 10-year rule as CM between 1993 and 2003 was all about development works getting stalled and wrecked.
