Ahmedabad, On the campaign trail for the April 23 Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday urged voters to give ‘strict democratic punishment’ to Indian National Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi for unfairly maligning Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Balakot surgical strike.
Addressing a public meeting at Sardar Patel Chowk here before the nomination of Bharatiya Janata Party president and candidate for Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, Amit Shah, the erstwhile head of the BJP affirmed that in five years PM Modi had worked magic and made India the sixth largest economy in the world.
When Mr Modi took the reins as PM, India was being seen across the world as a country of poor and unemployed and now it was poised to become the third largest economy and by 2028 overtake Russia, China or United States of America.
‘The whole world now accepts that the reins of India are in strong hands. But the irony is that the Congress leader himself was using indecent language for the PM. I appeal to the people to give strictest possible democratic punishment to such a party.
You all have seen previous Congress party regimes and also that the current PM and the ministers have no taint of corruption. When Rahul shouts the slogan of Chowkidar Chor hai, you all should retort even more loudly that ‘Chowkidar pure hai, dobara PM banana sure hai’ or ‘uske pas his sari samasyao ka cure hai.’
Mr Rajnath Singh also averred that there should be no playing politics with the Balakot surgical strike carried out by the Indian Air Force on terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Pulwama suicide bombing. ‘During the 1971 war with Pakistan, our army’s valour liberated Bangladesh. At that time, the whole nation was praising the then PM Indira Gandhi.
Even our leader Atal Behari Vajpayee did so in Parliament. Why should similar treatment not be accorded to PM Modi after Balakot surgical strike. Along with the army’s valour it is also about the political will of the government. What had the then Congress government done after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in which so many innocent lives were lost,’ Mr Rajnath Singh questioned.
The senior Minister praised Mr Shah for the work he had done for the party. He said Mr Amit Shah had in four-and-a- half years achieved what he could not accomplish in five-and-a-half-years as party president. The BJP had now emerged as the largest party in the world. For BJP, Mr Rajnath Singh said, coalition was not compulsion but commitment.
He urged the voters to make Mr Shah the worthy successor of party icon Lal Krishna Advani on the Gandhinagar seat win with a record margin.