‘Farmers are grateful to Modi’

Modi accuses Congress of appeasing Muslims, vows not to allow budget distribution based on religion. Claims opposition admitting defeat in polls. Promises support for onion farmers.

In his Nashik rally on Wednesday held for the BJP’s Dindori candidate Bharati Pawar and the Shiv Sena’s Nashik MP Hemant Godse, Modi once again launched into his favourite trope. Hitting out at the Congress for “appeasing Muslims”, he claimed that the party had been spending 15% of annual budgets on Muslims and, if elected, would do so again by “taking away the share of other communities”.

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In his attack, Modi claimed that the Congress always designed the budget based on religion and “out of its divisive mindset”. “For the Congress, there is only one minority, as it is its beloved vote bank,” he said. “When I was the CM of Gujarat, I had opposed this idea of spending 15% of the budget only on Muslims. They could not implement it after our opposition. But they are determined to implement all their old agendas.”

In his over-25-minute speech, Modi claimed that after four phases of the election, the opposition had admitted its defeat and hence had begun talking about merging their parties with the Congress. “The nakli (fake) Shiv Sena (led by Uddhav Thackeray) and nakli NCP (led by Sharad Pawar) think that by merging smaller parties in the Congress, the INDIA block will at least be able to be a formal opposition in the Lok Sabha,” he said. “The people of Maharashtra have decided to punish them, which was evident in the first four phases of the polls.”

Campaigning for himself in the rally, he proclaimed, “Modi will neither allow the distribution of the budget in the name of religion nor will he allow the diversion of the SC, ST, OBC and EWS reservation to Muslims. Modi will not let this happen against the policies of Dr B R Ambedkar. This is the election to pick not only an MP but a prime minister who has the power to work for a powerful nation.”

Sensing the unrest among the onion farmers of Nashik and neighbouring areas, Modi said his government had made arrangements for the buffer stock unlike previous governments. “We procured 1 lakh metric tonnes of onions and now have decided to create a buffer of 5 lakh metric tonnes more,” he claimed. “Our policies have resulted in the rise of onion exports by 35%.”

Modi added that Operation Green would benefit onion growers in the coming years. Claiming that Sharad Pawar had done nothing for farmers, and calling all the economic packages of the Congress government “fake”, he said that only he had taken farmer-friendly steps and all farmers were grateful to him for it.