New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday stroked the nationalist chord in poll-bound Haryana as he addressed three rallies, in Rewari, Ambala and Kurukshetra, to give the BJP’s campaign a push in the agrarian state. He tore into the Congress over its anti-farmer, anti-Dalit and anti-reservation stance. In a dig at Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, he asked if the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha even knew what the full form of “MSP” was. The senior BJP leader underlined that the party’s government in Haryana was procuring 24 crops at the minimum support price.
Addressing his first rally in Rewari, Shah outlined the BJP’s achievements and targeted Congress over its past governance and misleading promises. Taking a sharp swipe at the Congress, he accused the grand old party of “always insulting” the Army.
Going all out for a third term in the state, the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah has begun positioning the party as the staunch defender of national security while painting the Congress as weak on national defence.
“The Congress always insults the Army. It is the Congress that had the audacity to call the Army chief a ‘goonda’. The Congress never respected the Army,” Shah said.
He targeted the Congress for spreading rumours against the “Agniveer” scheme for political mileage. “Haryanawalo, I make this promise, not even one Agniveer (who will not be absorbed into the force) will be without a pensionable job, this is the BJP's promise. Rahul Baba has no other work than to spread rumours,” he said, in an obvious reference to the Congress raking up the Agniveer issue.
The home minister further targeted Gandhi over the issue of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, alleging that he wanted to bring it back. “Whether Jammu and Kashmir is our own or not? Should Article 370 have been scrapped or not? Rahul Baba has said there they will bring back Article 370. Rahul Baba, I am saying from this land of (legendary Ahir leader) Rao Tula Ram that not only you, even your third generation cannot bring back Article 370.”
“They say they will release all terrorists and stone-pelters from jail. Our Armymen were martyred. And you will release them (terrorists)? Rahul Baba, if you have the guts, then say this in Haryana,” he said.
On OROP, he said, “from Indira Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi, the Congress did not fulfil the demand of one rank one pension, but you made Modi Prime Minister, and he gave OROP in 2015”.
Attacking the Congress on the farmers’ issue, he said some NGO had told “Rahul Baba” that by saying MSP (minimum support price), he will get votes. “Rahul Baba, do you know the full form of MSP? Which crop is of kharif, which one is of rabi, do you know? Let the Congress leaders in Haryana tell which Congress-ruled state procures as many crops,” he asked, referring to Karnataka and Telangana, while he promised to raise the benefits of the Centre’s Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 a year for Haryana’s farmers if his party was voted back to power in the October 5 Assembly polls.
Further targeting the Congress, Shah said the BJP had done equitable development in Haryana and corruption had ended in the past 10 years.
“Congress governments used to run on the basis of cut, commission and corruption, while dealers, dalals (middlemen) and damads used to rule. Under the BJP government, there are no dealers or dalals, while there is no question of damad,” the senior BJP leader said.
He even hit out at the Congress for vote bank appeasement. On the Ram Mandir issue, he said that the Congress leader’s “four generations” had kept the Ram Lalla idol in a tent. “It was only Modi ji who built the Ram Temple,” he said.
Targeting Gandhi’s statement that he will end reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, the home minister said: “They accuse us of ending reservations… while he (Rahul) spoke in English there (in the US) that they will end reservations. How will you do it? It is our government. So long as there is even one BJP MP in Parliament, the reservations for Dalits and backward people cannot end,” said Shah, while accusing the Congress of insulting Dr B.R. Ambedkar and alleging that the party had not allowed the Bharat Ratna to be given to him and also had not even built a memorial for him.
