Contrary to Modi’s claim, on Wednesday, 7 May, during a rally in Jharkhand, Rahul Gandhi had said Modi was working for Ambani and Adani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the the Rajarajeswara Swamy Temple before addressing the Vemulawada rally. (X)
In a role reversal of sorts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the very first time, invoked two prominent businessmen from Gujarat – Adani and Ambani – in the context of black money to question Congress.
PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 8 May, urged senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to reveal if he had received “black money” from industrialists Ambani and Adani to stop attacking them ever since the schedule for the general election was announced.
Modi made the scathing U-turn attack on Gandhi while addressing an election rally in Telangana’s Vemulawada. Rahul Gandhi has been a vocal critic of “crony capitalism” accusing Modi government of helping only Adani and Ambani business groups.
“Let Congress Shehzada (implying Rahul Gandhi) say how much black money he has taken from them. How much did the Congress take from the two industrialists for the elections,” he said, adding that Gandhi had suddenly stopped criticising the industrialists.
“Every morning for five years, he counted beads on his japamala (yoga beads) abusing Ambani and Adani. After the election schedule was announced, Rahul Gandhi had not said a word against them. Why,” he asked.
Contrary to Modi’s claim, however, as recently as Wednesday, 7 May, during a rally in Jharkhand, Rahul Gandhi had said Modi was working for Ambani and Adani.
Why has Shahzade Ji stopped talking of Ambani and Adani in this election all of sudden? People are smelling a secret deal… pic.twitter.com/y5A87E6dfi
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 8, 2024
The prime minister also sought to firmly establish how the BRS and the Congress in Telangana were working hand in glove in plundering the state and promoting appeasement politics.
Covering a gamut of the issues facing the nation, Modi asked the people to be wary of the designs of the Congress and those of the BRS since they were two sides of the same coin.
He said both parties watched each other’s back while doing anything illegal and anti-people. “It is the corruption that holds the two parties together like Fevicol. They are part of the corruption syndicate, ruling the roost in Telangana now,” he said.
Modi said the two parties always helped each other in times of need. When the BRS was in power for the past 10 years, it did not take any action against Revanth Reddy, though he figured in the vote-for-note scam.
After he came to power, Revanth is glossing over the need to act against KCR for his role in the scam, alleged to have taken place in the execution of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).
The prime minister said that both parties are similar in one characteristic. They are family parties and they always put family first and nation next unlike the BJP which always followed the cardinal principle that the nation should come first and everything else is secondary.
Both the Congress and the BRS are good at zero governance, he said and exhorted the people that it was time they came forward to save the state from their clutches.
Modi said that his government always honoured and felicitated great people. The Congress humiliated former prime minister late PV Narasimha Rao. He had done a lot for the country but the Congress did not even allow his body to be taken inside the Congress office in Delhi for the people to pay their respects.
On the other hand, the BJP conferred the Bharat Ratna on him. “I felt very happy when I interacted with the family members of the great personality last night in Hyderabad,” he said.
Narasimha Rao hailed from Kongara village in erstwhile Karimnagar district.
The prime minister referred to ‘RR tax’, implying Revanth Reddy tax, and said it made the film RRR‘s collection of ₹1,000 crore pale in comparison.
The ‘RR tax’, which even the kids in Telangana state know, is collected in huge amounts and carted away to Delhi.
“R collects the tax in Telangana and hands it over to R in Delhi,” he said, indirectly referring to Revanth Reddy and Rahul Gandhi. If the Congress is allowed to ruin the state in this fashion, soon nothing would be left out, he cautioned.
Modi lashed out at the BRS and the Congress for their Muslim appeasement politics. He said for the first time, the BJP is giving a tough fight to AIMIM in Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency to end its stranglehold. He said the AIMIM has the support of both BRS and the Congress.
As the BJP candidate is giving the jitters to the AIMIM, the Congress and the BRS are on the edge, worried over the possibility of the AIMIM losing the election.
He said the Congress’s policy of Muslim appeasement is portending danger to the nation. “One INDIA leader had the audacity to say that entire reservations now in force should be transferred to the Muslims. Do you agree to it?. He is saying that the reservations now availed the SCs, STs, and OBCs should be given to the Muslims,” he said.
Babasaheb BR Ambedkar who had authored the Constitution was against reservations based on religion. But the Congtress wants to cut your reservation quota and give it to the Muslims, the prime minister said.
Referring to the consecration of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, he said that every one was happy over its inauguration but there were indications that the Congress, if it comes to power, wants to ensure that the Supreme court verdict on Ram Janma Bhoomi overturned.
It is a great temple whose doors came from Telangana. But the Congress wants to keep the Ram Temple under lock, he said, adding that this was the true colour of the party and reflection its Muslim appeasement politics.
He wanted the people to elect the BJP and give him strength to carry forward the work that he had initiated for ensuring overall prosperity of the nation.
Modi said because of the power that the people gave him through vote, that he could annul Article 370 which accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and develop India into a country that exported arms rather than importing them which it had been doing all these years.
The prime minister said the Congress has turned out to be the genesis of all problems. The Congress in its long innings in power had destroyed sectors including agriculture, textiles which were the country’s mainstay besides ruing the country’s economy.
After taking over from the Congress, the BJP has been putting the country back on the rails, infusing life into all the sectors that had been battered out of shape by the previous Congress regimes, Modi said.
Before addressing the Vemulawada rally, he offered prayers at the Rajarajeswara Swamy Temple, known as second Kasi.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
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![[Left] File photo of BJP MLA Harish Poonja, who has been booked, and [right] Poonja sitting for a protest in front of Belthangady Police Station in the early hours of Sunday, 19 May, 2024.](https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media.thesouthfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Harish-Poonja-and-Belthangady.jpg "Harish Poonja and Belthangady")
