PM Modi steps up attack on Congress, says 'it wanted to bring quota on basis of religion'

Jaipur, April 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday stepped up offensive on the Congress and accused it of ‘planning and plotting’ to disturb the fabric of the quota system by introducing religion-based reservation, when it was in power.

Addressing a mega public rally in Rajasthan’s Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, PM Modi doubled down on his attack amid a series of accusations by the Congress.

“When the Congress and INDI Alliance were in power, they wanted to give separate reservations to their special vote bank by breaking into the reservation of Dalits and backward classes. Whereas the Constitution is completely against this,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi further said that the ‘conspiracies’ of the Congress and the INDIA alliance won’t succeed as the incumbent government will not allow any alteration to Babasaheb’s Constitution.

“Amidst these conspiracies of the Congress, I am giving you a guarantee from an open platform that the reservation for Dalits, backward classes and tribals will neither be abolished nor will it be allowed to be divided in the name of religion. This is Modi's guarantee,” Prime Minister thundered at the rally.

Reiterating his ‘wealth redistribution to infiltrators’ statement, he said that Congress is in too much pain after being exposed and now they are abusing and cursing him from every platform.

“They have mentioned in their manifesto that they will survey your property. Our sisters and mothers' mangal sutra will be surveyed. This leader publicly said that if your property is more than needed then it will be distributed. If you have two houses, they will do X-ray and will say one house should be given to the government," he said.

“Do you accept it? Can these people touch the mangal sutra of women? Is this ‘Hand’ so powerful? Rajasthan should not have even one such hand left” PM said at Tonk rally.

He further accused the Congress of giving the reservation to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh in 2004.

“As soon as the Congress government came to power at the Centre in 2004, the first task undertaken by them was to provide reservation to Muslims by reducing SC/ST quota in Andhra Pradesh. This was a pilot project, which Congress wanted to implement in the entire country. Between 2004 and 2010, Congress tried four times to implement Muslim reservations in Andhra Pradesh. However, due to legal hurdles and awareness of the Supreme Court, they could not fulfil its plans. In 2011, Congress yet again tried to implement it across the country. They snatched the rights given to SC/ST and OBC and gave them to others for vote bank politics. Congress made all these efforts knowing that all this was against the basic spirit of the Constitution. Neither did it care about the Constitution nor of Baba Ambedkar ..." PM Modi told the public gathering.

“When we got the chance, we scrapped the reservation they brought and gave it back to those who had due right on it,” he added.

PM Modi further said that reading Hanuman Chalisa has become a crime under Congress rule and also invoked a recent incident from Karnataka.

“A young man was beaten up in Karnataka for playing Hanuman Chalisa in his shop. When Congress was in power in Rajasthan, a ban was imposed on the procession on Ram Navami,” PM Modi pointed out.