BJP chief Amit Shah, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani in Ahmedabad on Sunday. (Express Photo: Javed Raja)
Amid A political war of words over a social media campaign against the development claims of the Gujarat government, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday warned the youth against believing such “propaganda” and asked them to apply their minds. He also stressed that the Patidar quota agitation was leaning towards one political party — an apparent reference to the Opposition Congress — ahead of the Assembly elections later this year.
Addressing a gathering of youngsters at the Adikham Gujarat (Unmoved Gujarat) Yuva Townhall event, held at Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Hall in Ahmedabad, and those participating through video-conferencing from 312 locations in Gujarat, Shah also listed a number of achievements of the party’s rule in the state in over two decades. He first addressed the youth for nearly 45 minutes, and then answered 16 questions from them.
The BJP claimed nearly 1.8 lakh youth participated in the event and asked 3 lakh questions, several via social networking sites.
In his address, Shah divided the political history of Gujarat into two parts — before 1995 and after 1995, when BJP first formed its government in the state.
One of the important aspects distinguishing the Congress rule and the BJP rule in Gujarat, he said, was curfew. He said that during the Congress rule, the state often used to witness curfew, but since BJP formed the government, there had been hardly any such clampdown. He also attacked the Opposition Congress over corruption, power supply in rural areas and education.
He also cited growth figures on education, roads, employment, tribal development, power generation, infrastructure and other parameters. He said all such figures would be uploaded on the Gujarat BJP website, as he appealed to the youth to share these numbers.
Sounding a warning against anti-BJP campaigns on social media, Shah asked the gathering not to be misguided by such talks. He said, “Youth, work while applying your minds. Will you do that? Or will you get misguided by WhatsApp messages?”
Following his address, Shah answered 16 questions. Replying to the first question — on the Patidar quota agitation — he said, “Gujarat has witnessed reservation agitation two or three times and every time it has turned political… If you observe, you will find that the agitation is leaning towards a political party… there could be emotions of people attached to it, but main directors would be exposed…”
Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel had recently indicated his support for Congress in the upcoming state elections.
On demonetisation and the Reserve Bank of India recently announcing that 99 per cent of defunct Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes have returned to banking system, the BJP chief said: “You have noted that more than 99 per cent notes are back into the banking system, but have you ever asked how many of these notes were (in the banking system) before demonetisation?”
“Never earlier, more than 80 per cent of the (currency) notes was there in the system. I mean the currency which were not available for the country’s development… 20 per cent notes was stocked in the houses of corrupt, their basements and other places… All those notes have come back to the system for development…,” he added. “Before our government, only 3.6 crore people were paying income tax… that figure has jumped to 6.3 crore under Narendra Modi government, especially after notebandi.”
