NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, FEB 6
Rebutting allegations of discriminating against minorities in connection with a controversial CAA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress, making references to Jawaharlal Nehru, partition, the 1975 Emergency and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
“For someone’s aspiration to become the Prime Minister of India, a line was drawn on the map and India was divided into two. After the partition, the way how Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities were persecuted is unimaginable,” PM Modi said, replying to a debate on the debate on the President’s speech.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha. Watch.` https://t.co/jjnLHqGoYH
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 6, 2020
He said, “In 1950, Nehru-Liaquat Ali pact was signed, it said that minorities won’t be discriminated against in Pakistan. A big secular person like Nehru, a big visionary; and everything to you, why did he not use all citizens and not minorities? There must have been some reason.”
The pact between Nehru and Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali was signed in the backdrop of large-scale migration of people belonging to minority communities between the two countries after partition.
PM Modi said, “Why did Nehru use minorities? He replied to this too, and I’d know you’d abandon him too, whenever the need arises. Nehru had written to Assam Chief Minister and I quote – ‘You’d have to differentiate between Hindu refugees and Muslim migrants’. This is what Nehru wrote to Assam Chief Minister. Nehru in this parliament, in 1950, said that ‘there is no doubt that the affected people who have come to settle in India deserve citizenship and if the law isn’t suitable then it should be modified’. In 1953, in Lok Sabha, Nehru said ‘in East Pakistan, authorities are pressurizing Hindus. There are documents and reports, all pitch for a law.
All these instances, was Nehru communal? I want to know? Did he discriminate between Hindus and Muslims? Did he want a Hindu nation,” he asked.
`Many Tubelights are like this’ Modi digs at Rahul
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a savage dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in parliament, referring to the belated response of “tubelights”, as he rebutted the opposition on its criticism of his government.
While replying to a debate on the President’s speech, PM Modi made an apparent reference to the Congress MP’s rally in Delhi and a comment he had reportedly made about “youth beating Modi with sticks over the lack of jobs”.
As Rahul Gandhi rose to interject, the Prime Minister sneered: “I have been speaking for 30-40 minutes but it took this long for the current to reach. Bahut se tubelight aise hi hotey hai (many tubelights are like this)”. Members of the ruling BJP burst into laughter and thumped their desk in delight.
While campaigning for the Delhi election, Rahul Gandhi had said at a public meeting: “You wait and see. Narendra Modi who is giving speeches now, he will not be able to get out of his home in six-seven months. The youth of India will beat him with sticks. They will make him understand that if you don’t give jobs to our youth, India cannot go forward.”
PM Modi delivered his response in the Lok Sabha and said he would prepare himself for the “beating” by doing more surya namaskars.
“In 70 years, no Congress leader has ever been self-sufficient. I heard one leader’s manifesto – he said, we will beat Modi with a stick in six months. I can imagine that it is a difficult prospect (laughter in the house), so it will take six months to prepare. But even I will prepare in these six months and do more surya namaskar so that I am ready…the kind of abuses I have been subjected to in the past 20 years, I will make myself gaali-proof (abuse-proof) and also danda-proof (stick-proof),” the Prime Minister said.
“In a way, I am grateful that I have been given the advance notice.”
Modi’s style is to distract India: Rahul
Later, Rahul Gandhi was prodded by reporters to respond to the tubelight jibe but he didn’t. He said: “The biggest problem before the country is unemployment and Modi-ji has nothing to say about that. PM’s style is to distract India.
