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PM ensured Tricolour at Lal Chowk, oppn busy in vote bank politics: Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised PM Modi for restoring the glory of places of faith and criticized opposition leaders for not accepting Ram temple invite, citing vote bank politics.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that now the Tricolour fluttered proudly at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk even as he came down hard on the Congress-SP alliance leaders for not accepting Ram temple inauguration invite.
He said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi restored the glory of all places of faith, from Ayodhya’s Ram temple to Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath to Mahakal temple in Ujjain, the opposition was engaged in “vote bank” politics.
“The Srinagar’s Lal Chowk that was virtually out of bounds once now witnesses Krishna Janmashtami processions as our Tricolour flutters proudly there. This is all due to Modi magic as from Kashmir to Kerala he has ended terrorism,” Shah said in his poll rallies in Uttar Pradesh.
“You well know that vote bank considerations came in the way of the opposition leaders not accepting Ram temple invite. You are not their vote bank and you well know who their vote bank are, right?” Shah asked the audience in rallies in Bareilly, Budaun and Sitapur on Thursday.
Comparing the tenure of opposition chief ministers with that of Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister, Shah said: “During Modi ji’s tenure as Gujarat chief minister, none could dare accuse him of even 25 paise worth of corruption. That’s the difference between him and others as all through he has worked for the welfare of the masses and not for self and family.”
He also said while the opposition was busy playing caste politics, PM Modi was engaged in “GYAN worship”. He described GYAN as an abbreviation for “Gareeb (poor)”, “Yuva (youth)”, “Annadata (farmers)” and “Nari Shakti (women)”.
After Bareilly, in his second rally of the day in Budaun, Shah started by recalling how the Modi government had ensured Padma Bhushan to the late Ustad Rashid Khan who was born in Budaun and belonged to the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana and passed away in January.
“I will tell Modi ji that Budaun is remembering him,” he said as chants of Modi-Modi went up. “So you all are happy that in Ayodhya the lord shifted from tent house to grand temple where this time his birthday (Ram Navami) was celebrated and the Surya Tilak was also done. But Akhilesh ji and Dimple sister, Rahul baba and Priyanka ji didn’t go despite being invited. Why? Because of fear of angering their vote bank,” the home minister said.
“You know who their vote bank is. But Modi ji and BJP didn’t have any such fears as Ayodhya temple, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor have now come for the first time since (Mughal emperor) Aurangzeb had demolished the KV temple. Modi ji restored the glory of KV Corridor, did the same with the Mahakal temple and corridor and now along with many other developments, the Somnath temple is now being cast in gold. Modi ji has restored glory of all places of our faith,” he added.
He also took potshots at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and said, “Kharge ji, you are now 80 years but you still say what have people of U.P. got to do with Kashmir. The thing is you don’t know that people of U.P. love Kashmir from the bottom of their heart and that’s why welcomed the scrapping of Article 370, a decision that was opposed by ‘do ladkon ki jodi’,” he said while referring to Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, leaders of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party respectively.
He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi started with ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ before the elections but said by the time the polls end on June 4, he would need to take out a “Congress Dhoondho (trace Congress)” yatra.
“This is because in the first two phases, the BJP under Modi ji has notched up an impressive lead as the Congress is nowhere to be seen,” he said.
Shah claimed that UP was riven with communal riots till 2017, but on coming to power that year, Yogi Adityanath made the state riot-free and stopped residents’ exodus from western UP. Shah also lashed at the opposition for doing “politics” over Covid vaccine when the country was battling a pandemic even though the same vaccine saved so many lives. Bareilly and Budaun will go to poll in the third phase on May 7.
