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‘Is he PM of just Hindus?’: Gehlot hits out at PM Modi
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of considering himself the ‘Prime Minister of the BJP and Hindus only.’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under the illusion that he is Prime Minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindus, which is a “very dangerous” thing, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday.
“The Prime Minister is under the illusion that I am the Prime Minister of BJP, his behaviour, speech and body language is such as if he is the Prime Minister of a party. He is the Prime Minister of Hindus only; this is a very dangerous thing,” said Gehlot at an event organised for the inauguration of 17 new districts in the state at Birla Auditorium in Jaipur.
Modi has been elected in a democracy and the Congress party has maintained the rule of votes, Gehlot said. “Why does Modi consider himself as the Prime Minister of BJP and Hindus?” he asked.
The opposition BJP said Gehlot was making baseless allegations. “The statement of Gehlot is encouraging appeasement,” party spokesman Ram Lal Sharma said. “The PM has worked for the development and welfare of all, and his schemes has catered to all sections of society.”
Modi gets respect in foreign countries because people know that he is from the country of Mahatma Gandhi, where the rule of democracy has been kept alive by the Congress, the chief minister said. “It is said that Modi has become a big leader in the world. You (people) find out what the people in America, Germany are thinking about the incident in Manipur,” he said.
When the Supreme Court commented on what was happening in Manipur, the Prime Minister mentioned the names of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, both ruled by the Congress, with Manipur, which, Gehlot said, was an insult. “The answer to violence cannot be violence,” he said.
“Do Modi’s party and RSS people understand this? (Rabindranath) Tagore, whom they believe in, had said that humanity is greater than nationality. If there is no love, where will the nation be?” he asked. RSS, or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is the ideological mentor of the BJP.
Calling himself an ascetic, Gehlot took a dig at the Prime Minister, saying: “The people of the state should trust me…whatever I say, I say from my heart. I am a fakir like Modi ji. Modi ji, I am a bigger fakir than you. You must have noted that Modi ji does not repeat the dress he wears once. Don’t know if the dress would be changed once, twice or thrice a day. I keep my dress the same, am I not a fakir?”
“I have not bought a plot in my life. Haven’t bought a flat. I have not bought a single gram of gold. Would he be a fakir bigger than me? His spectacles cost ₹2.5 lakh. What do they want to hear from me? Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had called it a government of suit boot. When he became PM for the first time, Modi’s suit was made from London. It was a suit worth ₹10 lakh,” Gehlot said. “As soon as Gandhi attacked the government by calling it a suit and boot government, that coat had to be sold.”
Gehlot also spoke on the his recent statement that he wanted to leave the post of chief minister but the post is not leaving him. “In the beneficiary interaction programme of Chiranjeevi scheme, Dhapu Devi of Alwar, who got her heart transplant, asked me to become the CM again and again. I said that Dhapu Deviji, I want to leave the post of chief minister, but this post is not leaving me.” The Chiranjeevi Yojana is a health insurance scheme of the Rajasthan government.
