Modi attacks Cong over promise on university in Uttarakhand
Addressing a virtual rally days before the Uttarakhand assembly elections, Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s double-engine government is making all efforts to move ahead in the 21st century by speeding up development.
Dehradun: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Congress of promising to build a Muslim university in Uttarakhand and said it was a proof of the opposition party’s appeasement politics.
Addressing a virtual rally days before the Uttarakhand assembly elections, Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s double-engine government is making all efforts to move ahead in the 21st century by speeding up development.
“On the other hand, the Congress is putting all its force to push back the state to the 20th century. It is evident with what they are promising to do. How dare they even think of speaking about such university, that too without any shame and by thumping their chest? This is the proof of their appeasement politics,” Modi said.
Polling for the 70-member Uttarakhand legislative assembly will take place on February 14 and the votes will be counted on March 10.
While the Congress has denied any proposal to start a Muslim university in Uttarakhand, the state unit of the BJP has been constantly raking it up to attack the opposition party and its general secretary and former chief minister Harish Rawat.
The Congress on February 4 filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India against the BJP for allegedly using a morphed photo of Rawat and showing him as a Muslim cleric on its official Twitter handle (@BJP4UK). The poll body on January 5 sent a notice to the BJP Uttarakhand unit chief Madan Kaushik and sought a response within 24 hours.
“The party has given its reply to the commission on Tuesday after collecting the required facts,” said Rajeev Sharma, head of the legal cell of Uttarakhand BJP.
“Wherever they (the Congress) did this appeasement politics, they spewed venom. They did this in Kashmir and all can see what happened there. We won’t allow them to destroy Uttarakhand,” Modi said at his rally in Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar Lok Sabha segments, comprising 15 assembly seats.
The Congress is “not ready to leave its appeasement politics”, Modi said, adding that the elections will “strengthen the base of the state for the next 25 years”.
“We all know that if the base is strong, the building will also be strong. Today there are many parties in the elections before you. There are some that have been destroying the state, while there are some who have entered the state to destroy it,” Modi said in an indirect reference to the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), respectively.
Without naming the AAP, he said: “In Delhi where they are in power, they sent buses filled with Uttarakhand migrants in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Such people are now in Uttarakhand to ask for your votes.”
He also took a potshot at the Congress’s Char Dham Char Kaam slogan.
“They have only kaam (work) to do. First, they will only work for the welfare of one family; second, whatever they will do, there will be corruption; third, they will do appeasement politics and divide the country by discriminating in government programmes; and last, they will delay development projects for years to squander exchequer money after coming to power,” Modi said.
He also listed out the various development works being carried out by the BJP’s double-engine government, including the construction of the Char Dham all-weather road, Delhi-Dehradun expressway, Rishikesh-Karanprayag rail project and connecting the state’s tourism spots and temples with a ropeway system.
The Congress, meanwhile, said the people of Uttarakhand will not be affected by the lies being spewed by the BJP and its leaders.
“No matter how many rallies he (Modi) holds in the state, people of Uttarakhand have made up their mind to throw the BJP out of power in the coming elections,” Congress state general secretary Mathura Dutt Joshi said. “They won’t be affected with the lies spewed by the BJP and Modi. They are very well aware the BJP did nothing for the state’s development in the last five years of its tenure, except changing three chief ministers.”