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Modi raises Godhra at Darbhanga rally
PM says the Banerjee Commission, headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, “under pressure” from Lalu Prasad, submitted a “bogus” report that “tried to exonerate those who were guilty and put the blame on kar sevaks themselves”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused RJD president Lalu Prasad, the BJP’s principal opponent in Bihar, of having tried to “shield” those guilty in two-decade-old Godhra train burning incident and “put blame on kar sevaks”.
Addressing an election rally at Darbhanga, Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat where riots had erupted after the incident in 2002, also alleged that the RJD supremo had acted in connivance with the Congress, which headed the UPA, which was in power at the Centre.
This is probably the first time Modi has raised the Godhra issue during the ongoing elections.
Without mentioning Prasad by name, Modi described the RJD supremo, who was the Railway minister in the first UPA government, as one “serving sentences, out on bail (in fodder scam cases)”.
“He had tried to shield those who were responsible for the Godhra train burning incident in which more than 60 kar sevaks were burnt alive. Was it not the reign of Sonia (Gandhi) madam,” remarked the PM, referring to the former Congress president and UPA chairperson.
Modi recalled that the Banerjee Commission, although headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, was often called “ben raazi (the sister is willing)”, and “under pressure” from Prasad, it submitted a “bogus” report that “tried to exonerate those who were guilty and put the blame on kar sevaks themselves”.
“But the court consigned the report to the dustbin. Those who were guilty got punished, some of them even getting death sentences,” said the Prime Minister.
Modi alleged that all constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA had a propensity towards “appeasement” and attacked the RJD for “counting Muslims among armed forces”.The remark seemed an oblique reference to Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD president’s son and heir apparent who has spoken of “all the three armed forces being headed by Hindus” while slamming the ruling BJP at the Centre for repeatedly claiming that the faith of the majority community was “in danger”.
In his speech which lasted for more than 30 minutes, Modi also took potshots at Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, mentioning neither by name but observing “there is a ‘shehzada’ (crown prince) in Delhi. Likewise there is a ‘shehzada’ in Patna. Both have had a dismal track record”.
The Prime Minister, without taking names, sought to remind the people of the RJD “misrule”. “How the kidnapping industry was running in Bihar. How the treasury of Bihar was looted through big scams. How sisters and daughters were afraid to leave their homes in the evening. How the poor were forced to register their land in the name of getting jobs?”
“Today, under the leadership of Nitish ji, the NDA government is working day and night for the development of Bihar,” Modi said.
The PM said the Congress intended to snatch reservations from SCs, STs, OBCs and backward classes and give it to Muslims, adding that he won’t allow even a shred of reservation based on religion.
“They now want to snatch away the reservation of SC-ST-OBC. When our Constitution was being drafted, it was unanimously decided by the Constituent Assembly that reservations would never be granted in India based on religion. But now Congress and RJD collectively want to rob the reservation of backward classes, and Dalits and give it to Muslims based on religion,” he said.
Modi said the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a significant moment in Indian history. “After 500 years, our wait has ended. We are witnessing this auspicious time in our lifetime.”
He attacked Congress over inheritance tax, claiming it would impose 55% inheritance tax if voted to power in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The PM said that the bottlenecks in the construction of proposed AIIMS at Darbhanga would be also resolved soon. Government was doing its work like Darbhanga airport became functional, Amrit Bharat train became operational and newly built IT Park would provided news avenue to the job seekers, he added.
Modi appealed people to vote for NDA candidates — Ramprit Mandal of JD-U from Jhanjharpur, Gopal Jee Thakur of BJP from Darbhanga, Shambhavi Choudhary of LJP (R) from Samastipur and Ashok Yadav of BJP from Madhubani.
