It's not polarisation to show that Congress has violated the constitution: Modi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an interview published today that he was not resorting to communal polarisation by showing that Congress violated the constitution by enacting laws to provide reservations on the basis of religion.
In the interview with Times of India, replying to a question about Congress accusing BJP of attempting communal polarisation in Karnataka and elsewhere, Modi said, "The media should look at actions and not allegations."
"… it is not polarisation to show that Congress has violated the Constitution and enacted laws providing reservation on the basis of religion. Our Constitution clearly prohibits reservations based on religion but the Congress government in Karnataka reversed the law passed by BJP to provide reservation to Other Backward Castes and gave it [to] Muslims, classifying all Muslims as OBC. Even the National Commission for Backward Classes, a constitutional body, criticised this as against principles of social justice," Modi was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Modi also stuck to his statement that former PM Manmohan Singh had indeed said Muslims had the first claim on India's resources.
Modi faces criticism from the opposition that he was promoting a polarising narrative ever since he said, in a campaign rally in Rajasthan's Banswara on April 21, that Congress plans to hand over the country's wealth to "infiltrators and those who have more children".
The Indian PM expressed confidence of getting a third straight term and said he was striving for a 400-plus tally of seats to foil the "evil designs of opposition parties to take away reservations and rights of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes and give it to their vote bank".
The PM questioned opposition Congress's proposals for redistribution of wealth through steps like wealth and inheritance tax. "I do not think they are solutions by any stretch of imagination. These are actually dangerous problems disguised as solutions. Would you work day and night if the government would take away your money at the end in the name of redistribution?" he said, adding these ideas would "kill" the start-up revolution and were merely a way to please "the opposition's vote bank".
Modi said these ideas carried the risk of creating "complete and irreversible communal disharmony".
"Our Constitution protects the property of all minorities. This means that when Congress talks of redistribution, it cannot touch the properties of minorities, it cannot consider Waqf properties for distribution, but it will eye the properties of other communities," he added.
Asked about the opposition's charge that he would change the constitution in case he got a super mandate, Modi said, "It is ironic that people who have changed the Constitution maximum number of times are saying that we will change the Constitution. But before asking such a question, you should analyse my track record."
He also reiterated BJP's resolve to implement a uniform civil code. "It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society. We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other community is stuck in a time warp due to appeasement. We will do everything in our capacity to make uniform civil code a reality in India," Modi said.
Comments