Congress, BJP trade barbs over Prime Minister Modi’s anti-Muslim speech in Rajasthan

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his election rally speech in Rajasthan over the weekend, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Monday questioned whether 200 million Muslims in the country matter to him or not adding that Election Commission of India must issue notice to Prime Minister over his comments.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Sibal said, “You (PM Modi) are giving a speech that the Congress will give the properties of the women to infiltrators and terrorists. Do 20 crore (200 million) people do not matter to him? Do they not have any aspirations? Politics has stooped down to such a level and it has not happened in history and I do not want it to happen. I want to ask a question to the Election Commission why action was not taken immediately. You (EC) should condemn it and a notice should be given to PM Modi.”

Sibal claimed that the Prime Minister made these remarks as he might have sensed that voting in phase 1 of the Lok Sabha elections has not gone BJP’s way.

In his speech, Modi said, “Their Mangalsutra, the question is not of the cost of gold in it, it is linked to her dreams of her life. You are talking of snatching it in your manifesto…will distribute gold and redistribute. When it was their government, they had said that Muslims have the first right over the country’s wealth. Who will you distribute after collecting the wealth, distribute it to those who have more children, distribute to infiltrators. Will the money of your hard labour be given to infiltrators, is this acceptable to you? Congress manifesto is saying that they will calculate the gold of mothers, sisters and then redistribute the wealth to those whom the Manmohan Singh government had said that the first right to resources is of Muslims. Brothers, sisters, this thinking of urban Naxals, my mothers, sisters, they will not allow even your Mangalsutra remain in your possession, they will go to this extent,” PM Modi said.

Sibal retorted, “Recently, PM Modi gave a speech, it seems that the first phase of elections has not been in their favour. After that speech, I feel that a lot of people would be disappointed. I don’t think any Prime Minister have made such remarks since independence which indicates that minorities living here are intruders. What kind of politics and culture is this?” he said.

He also questioned the silence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on the matter.

“We respect the post of Prime Minister and the person holding that post but when the PM is not worthy of respect, the intellectuals in the country should raise their voice. Mohan Bhagwat is silent. Why is he silent? We are against RSS but I feel RSS have not taught these things to Modiji,” he said.

Several online factcheckers corrected Modi’ statement saying that he was wrong about both the context and the content of the accusations.

The speech in question was delivered at the meeting of the National Development Council by erstwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 9, 2006. He had said resources must be allocated to uplift people from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes communities, backward classes, minorities, women, and children. He said that India needs to plan the development of minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, in a manner that they are “empowered to share equitably the fruits of development”.

“Agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will need to be revitalized. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the over-all resource availability [sic],” reads the transcript of Manmohan Singh’s speech in the government archive.

However, the part concerning “Muslims” was taken out of context, and has been shared as an isolated statement since. The BJP, which was in the Opposition back then, targeted the UPA government over this. Following the controversy, the government issued a clarification the next day, saying there was “a deliberate and mischievous misinterpretation” of what the Prime Minister had said at the meeting.

It reproduced the transcript of his speech and said: “The Prime Minister’s reference to ‘first claim on resources’ refers to all the ‘priority’ areas listed above, including programmes for the upliftment of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities.”

The government’s clarification further read: “While better-off sections of society will benefit from this process, it is the responsibility of the Government to pay special attention to the welfare of weaker and marginalized sections. The Prime Minister has said on several occasions that “India must shine, but shine for all.”

Related posts