 "PM Modi")
On Tuesday, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi pitched for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), accusing Opposition parties of “provoking” Muslims on the issue, stressing how these parties have ensured that most Muslim families lead lives of misery without jobs and education.
He also reached out to Muslim women, slamming those who opposed the abolition of triple talaq when several Islamic countries, including Egypt, a “90 per cent Sunni country” that he recently visited, have abolished it.
Days after being questioned on the alleged discrimination against Muslims, the PM asserted that all had access to his government’s welfare schemes, including backward Muslims, known as Pasmandas, whom the elite of their community has exploited.
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In a 113-minute interactive session in Bhopal, the capital of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh (MP), with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) booth workers, which an estimated 1 million BJP workers joined via videoconferencing from across the country, Modi charted the contours of the party’s election discourse for the next nine months.
Modi said the BJP worked on santushtikaran, the satisfaction of all, not tushtikaran, the appeasement of some.
Modi urged party workers to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims with facts and arguments to convince them that all, including Muslims, had access to his government’s welfare schemes.
Modi avoided describing welfare schemes proposed by Opposition parties as revdi, or freebies, and instead detailed the savings that have accrued to the poor, middle class, and farmers because of his government’s schemes.
He said the government’s biggest contribution to helping people save is to rein in inflation when it has galloped the world over, especially in India’s neighbourhood, including Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in the post-pandemic years.
Modi said an Indian, on average, consumes 20 gigabytes of data a month, which would have cost Rs 6,000 under the Congress government but is now only Rs 200-300.
The PM also elaborated on the savings that accrue to the poor and middle classes through subsidised LED bulbs, Ayushman Bharat, and affordable medicines.
The PM rattled out the names of several non-dominant Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Castes from across the country, which he said parties espousing social justice have discriminated against while favouring other castes and communities. He named such castes from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, and Kerala.
While referring to the lot of Pasmandas, Modi also listed a dozen of these castes, such as cobblers and weavers. Incidentally, the Vishwakarma scheme, once rolled out, will benefit several of these castes.
In addition, the PM said his government’s Svanidhi scheme had helped roadside vendors, while PM Kisan Nidhi has benefited 110 million farmers, to whom Rs 2.25 trillion have been transferred. He compared the rates of a 50-kilogram bag of urea in the US, Brazil, China, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and said it was the cheapest in India at a mere Rs 270 per bag since his government subsidised it.
On Opposition unity, Modi said it was a desperate last-ditch effort, the common minimum programme, of self-serving corrupt dynasts, who together account for malfeasance of over Rs 20 trillion of people’s money. He said their “jugalbandi” was to save themselves from going to jail, as the people would certainly bring back the BJP by a thumping majority in 2024. In a jibe at Congress poll ‘guarantees’, Modi said the only guarantee these leaders can give is of perpetrating scams.
The PM said the people of the country need to decide whether to vote to help the welfare of the sons, daughters, and grandchildren of these dynasts or their own. Modi accused non-BJP-run state governments of not transferring to consumers two reductions in excise on petrol and diesel, instructing party workers to stand in front of petrol pumps in these states to educate people on the issue.
The PM told BJP workers that their target should be to get people to enrol in all of his government’s schemes, “100 per cent saturation”, not just one or two schemes. He asked them to get people to connect with their local Member of Parliament and legislator on social media and download the NaMo application. He asked BJP workers to engage with families and children who access anganwadi centres. The MP government recently increased the allowances of anganwadi workers.
Modi said Indian Muslims needed to understand that parties use them as vote banks by exploiting their emotions, just as they provoke them on the common code. He asked how a country can run if there are two different laws. Modi said the Constitution talks about implementing a UCC, and the Supreme Court flagged its need.
The PM said some parties accused the BJP of discriminating against Muslims, “but the truth is they have kept my Muslim brothers and sisters without access to education or jobs, forcing them to lead lives of misery. The practitioners of vote-bank politics have made the lives of our Pasmanda Muslim brothers and sisters a living hell”, the PM said.
He accused the Muslim elite of exploiting Pamandas and bemoaned that the country had never discussed the problem. Modi said Pasmandas received all benefits, including those of the PM Awas Yojana and health insurance.
