The Congress has come up with a “fatwa”, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India’s main opposition party, he explains, has said he shouldn’t begin rallies with “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.
And here’s what the prime minister thinks: It shows the Congress’s disrespect for the motherland, and they should be ashamed.
Modi’s remarks, made on the campiagn trail in Sikar, Rajasthan, were reported by ANI.
The BJP-governed state is gearing up to hold an assembly election this week, and Modi wasn’t alone in canvassing voters today. Rahul Gandhi was in Alwar.
It was there that Congress president said, “In every address, he [Modi] says Bharat Mata Ki Jai and works for Anil Ambani.”
Ambani is the chairman of the Reliance ADA Group. The Congress has long accused Modi of crony capitalism, and one focal point of its criticism of the 2016 Rafale deal is the choice of Reliance Defence as the French jet-maker’s offset partner.
Rahul Gandhi said Modi should “begin his address by saying ‘Anil Ambani ki Jai’, ‘Mehul Choksi ki Jai’, ‘Nirav Modi ki Jai’, Lalit Modi ki Jai’.”
Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are the businessmen accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank in a multi-crore scam that came to light this year. Lalit Modi, the former IPL chairman, left India after being charged with money laundering.
Rahul Gandhi said ‘Bharat Mata’ was the “entire country, farmers, the sentiments of crores of youths, women and labourers”.