‘What Modi said is hate speech, our manifesto is about justice for all’: Cong chief Kharge

The Congress party has termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent statements against Indian Muslims as hate speech and said they were a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the initial phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The Congress said Modi’s comments indicated a sense of “panic” and “disappointment” within the ruling party.

“Modi ji’s panicky speech today showed that INDIA is winning in the first phase results. What Modi ji said is not just hate speech but also a well thought out ploy to divert attention. Today, the Prime Minister did what he has learned from the values ​​of the Sangh. Lying for power, making baseless references and leveling false accusations against opponents is the specialty of RSS and BJP training,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a social media post on Sunday, April 21.

At a rally in Banswara in Rajasthan on April 21, Modi accused the Congress of planning to distribute citizens’ hard-earned money and assets to “infiltrators” and “those who have many children.” He claimed that the Congress manifesto contained provisions for assessing the “gold of mothers and sisters” and redistributing this wealth. Modi claimed that the previous Manmohan Singh-led government had maintained that Muslims should first have access to the country’s assets.

In response, the Congress said its manifesto did not refer to religious identities such as Muslim or Hindu. Instead, it focused on the principles of equality and justice for all citizens. The Congress also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to produce a single paragraph in his manifesto that talked about redistribution of wealth among the Muslim community.

Kharge further said that no prime minister in the history of India had degraded the dignity of his post as deeply as Modi. “The country’s 140 million people will no longer fall prey to this lie. Our manifesto is for every Indian. It talks about equality for everyone. There is talk of justice for all. The judiciary of Congress is based on the foundation of truth, but it seems that the throne of the dictator in the form of Goebbels is now shaking,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi also targeted the Prime Minister over his speech and said, “The level of lies of Narendra Modi has come down so much after the disappointment in the first phase of elections… that out of fear he now wants to divert people’s attention from issues. Trends are starting to emerge regarding the tremendous support the revolutionary manifesto is receiving from the Congress.”