People have to decide if ‘vote jihad’ will work or Ram Rajya, says PM Modi in MP

Bhopal/Khargone: Prime Miner Narendra Modi on Tuesday sharpened his attack on the Congress, asserting that India was at a turning point in hory and the people have to choose in the ongoing elections if Vote Jihad or Ram Rajya should determine the path the country will take. Khargone: Prime Miner Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting for Lok Sabha polls in Khargone. (PTI) “In Pakan, terrors are threatening to do jihad against India. And Congress leaders have declared to carry out vote jihad against Modi. That is, people of a certain religion are being told to vote against Modi. To what level has the Congress stooped… Is vote jihad acceptable? Can this be allowed in a democracy?…” PM Modi told an election meeting in Khargone, a reference to remarks Maria Alam, Samajwadi Party candidate and Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s niece. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! Alam, a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader, had called for a “vote jihad” in favour of the INDIA opposition bloc candidate from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Kayamganj on April 30. At the election rally in Khargone on Tuesday, PM Modi asked people if they were fine with “vote jihad”. “Can such a thing prevail in a democracy? Does the Indian Constitution allow such jihad?” he asked The prime miner said the Congress and the INDIA bloc partners were only fighting the elections to save their legacy, underscoring they were not bothered about the fate of the masses. PM Modi also reiterated his accusation, first levelled last week, that sought to link the Congress to Pakan. At the two election rallies in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, PM Modi said the Congres’s love for Pakan was reaching a new peak after every phase of voting. “A former CM of Congress said it is our army, which carries out terror attacks, Pakan is innocent. Can people of our country think like this… Isn’t this an insult to our army or not… I would ask shehzada (a reference to Rahul Gandhi)… Where did these voices start coming from …. So much love for Pakan and so much hatred for our army,” PM Modi said. The PM’s remarks were seen to refer to former Punjab chief miner Charanjit Singh Channi’s comments that the terror attack on an Indian Air Force (IAF) convoy in Jammu & Kashmir last week was an “election stunt” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Channi said he was proud of the country’s soldiers but questioned the Centre over the probe into the 2019 terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. PM Modi said the Congress’s intentions were very dangerous and asked people to len to the statements made Congress leaders who had quit the party after spending 20-25 years.”A woman Congress leader said that when she went to Ram Mandir, she was tortured so much that she had to leave Congress. Another leader said that Muslim League and Maos have taken over Congress. One said that the shehzada of Congress intends to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision on Ram Mandir just like shehzada’s father overturned the Supreme Court’s decision in the Shahbano case, in the same way Congress is thinking of changing the Supreme Court’s decision on Ram Mandir.” PM Modi also repeated his claim that the Congress would snatch reservation benefits of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes to appease a community. “They issued such a law that all the Muslims in Karnataka were made OBC. They want to implement this model in the whole country,” he added.