28 April,2024 06:00 PM IST | Ahmedabad | mid-day online correspondent
Abhishek Manu Singhvi. File Pic
Senior Congress leader Abhisekh Manu Singhvi on Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reducing the dignity of his post and that of the Constitution for recently claiming in a Lok Sabha elections 2024 rally in Banswara of Rajasthan that the opposition party will redistribute citizens' wealth to "infiltrators" and "those producing more children", the PTI reported.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was undermining democratic institutions using money, vendetta politics and through misuse of government agencies, Abhisekh Manu Singhvi alleged, as per the PTI.
"In the last 75 years, no prime minister has used such words for 'mithya prachar' (false campaign) that he used in Banswara and many times after that. You have reached the level of statesman after 10 years of being prime minister, but you speak such things. You are reducing the dignity of your position and that of the Constitution," Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Abhisekh Manu Singhvi said, the news agency reported on Sunday.
"This not about Hindu-Muslim riots, this is about the election. And when they (BJP) learned such an inheritance tax was abolished by Congress government two three decades back, the PM brought out a new jumla saying (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi did it to inherit the property of Indira Gandhi," Abhisekh Manu Singhvi claimed, according to the PTI.
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Queried about Union Home Minister Amit Shah accusing Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies that the BJP would ends quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs, Abhisekh Manu Singhvi said that he was glad "someone in the BJP is talking about accountability, distortion, digression and 'mithya prachar' (false campaign)."
"I wish the same person had talked about these four words a few weeks ago in Banswara or the other poll rallies of the PM," Singhvi added. There is no comparison in the last 75 years to utterances of the PM in this Lok Sabha poll campaign, but all these attempts are bound to fail, he said. "They reflect the desperation of the BJP. It is not cultured or fair. It is false and it is not anywhere near the democratic ethos of India," he said, as per the PTI.
Abhisekh Manu Singhvi also criticised the Election Commission of India for giving a notice to the BJP president on the Congress complaint to the poll body against the PM for his statement.
"This is a complaint against an individual. What is the use of giving notice to another person," the senior Congress leader questioned.
He also alleged "vitamin M (an apparent reference to money) was being used to lure leaders into the BJP and cited happenings in the Surat Lok Sabha poll (where the BJP candidate won unopposed), the Chandigarh mayoral elections and the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections.
"You will be surprised to know that almost one-fourth of BJP candidates are from other parties. Out of 417 candidates announced by BJP, 116 are dalbadlu (turncoats). Of course most of them are from Congress," Singhvi said. Central probe agencies are being misused against opposition parties and 99.5 per cent political cases being pursued by them are against opposition members, he claimed. "The BJP has a washing machine. If any of the accused joins that party they get a clean chit," he jibed, a PTI report stated.
(with PTI inputs)
