In a scathing attack on the Congress Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday alleged that the party was appeasing Muslim fundamentalists and its opposition to the Waqf (Amendment) Act and questioned its record on the issue.
Modi said the Congress's opposition to the law proved the party's record of political opportunism, especially for the Muslim community. Modi went on to question as to why Congress had never had a Muslim president or reserved 50% of its election tickets for Muslim candidates.
The Prime Minister said this while inaugurating the Hisar airport in Haryana, which he called a milestone in the state's growth. Modi also paid his respects to Dalit icon BR Ambedkar on the occasion of his birth anniversary, asserting that Ambedkar's fight for equality and justice has been the inspiration behind the government's policies and decisions.
Aiming at Congress, Modi said that the party had always employed the Constitution as an instrument of maintaining power. He put before the gathering the memory that, during the Emergency, the Congress party had defied the spirit of the Constitution, even though the Constitution had a secular framework. Modi further stated that the Congress had not been able to introduce a uniform civil code and had never made sure that the benefits of reservation were extended to the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC). Modi blamed the Congress for ignoring the backward classes it professed to support.
The Prime Minister continued by blaming Congress for treating Dr. Ambedkar shabbily while he was alive. "Congress insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar, put him out of business twice in elections, and conspired to exclude him from the system. Even after he died, they attempted to obliterate his memory," Modi alleged. He continued by accusing Congress's vote-bank politics of damaging the Muslim community by keeping the interests of a few fundamentalists ahead of the overall welfare of the community.
On the Waqf (Amendment) Act, Modi asserted that Congress had arbitrarily amended the law for politics, thereby weakening the Constitution. He believed that if Congress was indeed concerned about the Muslim community, it could provide them with significant representation, i.e., having a Muslim president and reserving 50% of the election tickets to Muslims.
The Prime Minister also pointed out that the Waqf properties, spanning huge areas of land, had been exploited by land mafias, denying poor Muslims, Dalits, and marginalized sections. The new Waqf law, Modi contended, would stop exploitation and protect the rights of poor Muslims and Pasmanda Muslims, bringing actual social justice.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge hit back at Modi’s allegations, stating that the BJP government had failed to implement Dr. Ambedkar’s vision, especially in the field of education. He accused the BJP of making empty claims while failing to act on Ambedkar’s principles. Kharge also referred to the fact that Congress had been demanding the immediate enactment of the Women's Reservation Act, which provides for 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. He reminded Modi that it was Congress who had made Ambedkar the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution.
Kharge challenged the BJP's record on honoring Ambedkar's principles and contended that Congress had always been in the business of empowering marginalized sections, including insisting on SC, ST, and OBC women being brought into the Women's Reservation Act.
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