Both Indira, Rajiv promised poverty removal, nothing changed: Shah mocks Rahul
Bhandara (Maharashtra), Apr 14 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday mocked Rahul Gandhi for vowing to remove poverty, saying the then prime minister Indira Gandhi had also promised to do so but nothing happened in her tenure and later under Rajiv Gandhi government.
Addressing a poll rally at Sakoli town in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, Shah also said as long as the BJP is in politics, it would neither remove the reservation in employment and education nor let anyone do so.
"Rahul Gandhi says that his party would undertake a poverty eradication programme. He does not read, but I would like to inform him that his grandmother and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had made the same promise.
"She (Indira), her son Rajiv Gandhi, and later Sonia Gandhi all came to power and gone, but nothing happened. How can we trust Rahul Gandhi's promise?" Shah said.
The BJP has fielded sitting MP Sunil Mendhe from Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency.
Shah also accused Rahul of spreading rumours about a potential threat to the Constitution if BJP wins a massive mandate.
"Rahul Gandhi talks about how BJP would misuse the majority in Parliament if it wins a third term. I want to tell him that the BJP had the majority in the last ten years, and we used the majority to remove Article 370 and triple talaq," he said.
Shah also tore into Congress over the promises made in the party's manifesto for Lok Sabha elections.
He claimed Rahul Gandhi was misleading people that the BJP government would remove quota in jobs and education.
"As long as the BJP is in politics, it will neither remove reservations nor allow anyone to remove them," the Union home minister added.
The BJP government at the Centre would crush the Naxal menace from Chhattisgarh forever if voted to power for a third term, Shah said.
He alleged that Congress used illegal means like disbursing Rs 1 to each voter and a packet of salt to ensure the defeat of Babasaheb Ambedkar in the 1954 Lok Sabha election from the Bhandara constituency.
Shah highlighted various features of BJP's manifesto for Lok Sabha elections which was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day.
"After coming to power, the BJP will implement the Uniform Civil Code in the country and exercise the 'One Nation, One Election' policy. You have to choose between a prime minister who never took a holiday for a single day and the INDIA bloc parties busy in getting their relatives elected," the Union home minister said.
He said Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat for several years but he never faced an allegation even about a "5 paise corruption".
In contrast, the Congress party caused scams running into Rs 12 lakh crore, Shah alleged.
Targeting Congress over fiscal policies, he said, "We (the BJP government) spent the last 10 years filling the ditch in the economy caused by the earlier Congress-led regimes".
He said the Modi government would work for the overall development of the country over the next five years. PTI
