Naked communal appeal: Tharoor on Modi’s comment on Congress and Muslims

Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment that Congress, if voted to power, would distribute people’s private wealth to Muslims as disgraceful.

“This is a very disgraceful speech made by the prime minister. The fact is that people realise that when he says that the Congress party is going to take all your wealth and give it to the Muslims, this is just a nakedly communal appeal, which normally any civilised election commission would disallow and warn the candidate for speaking like this. It is simply not decent,” Tharoor told ANI.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Congress party has plans to redistribute gold and hard-earned money to “illegal immigrants” and asked people whether this is acceptable to them or not.

“Congress manifesto says that it will calculate the gold owned by our mothers and sisters, collect information, and then distribute it to those whom former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that Muslims have the first right to country’s wealth. They will check how much gold our sisters own, how much silver tribal families have, and how much money government employees have there,” the PM said in an election rally in Rajasthan on Sunday.

Tharoor said that he was truly disappointed by the prime minister’s speech.

“The Congress party is constantly accused by Mr. Modi of having ruled the country for 65 years. Have we taken away people’s wealth and given it to the Muslim community? How can the prime minister talk like this? I am truly disappointed,” he said.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal asked whether 20 crore (200 million) people in the country mattered to PM Modi or not, adding that Election Commission of India must issue notice to him over the comments.

Addressing a press conference, Kapil Sibal said, “You (PM Modi) are giving a speech that the Congress will give the properties of the women to infiltrators and terrorists. Do 20 crore (200 million) people do not matter to him? Do they not have any aspirations? Politics has stooped down to such a level and it has not happened in history and I do not want it to happen. I want to ask a question to the election commission why action was not taken immediately. You (EC) should condemn it and a notice should be given to PM Modi.”

Sibal claimed that the prime minister made these remarks as he might have sensed that voting in phase 1 of the Lok Sabha elections has not gone BJP’s way.

“Recently, PM Modi gave a speech. It seems that the first phase of elections has not been in their favour. After that speech, I feel that a lot of people would be disappointed. I don’t think any prime minister have made such remarks since independence which indicates that minorities living here are intruders. What kind of politics and culture is this?” he said.

He also questioned the silence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on the matter.

“We respect the post of prime minister and the person holding that post but when the PM is not worthy of respect, the intellectuals in the country should raise their voice. Mohan Bhagwat is silent. Why is he silent? We are against RSS but I feel RSS have not taught these things to Modiji,” he said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Congress party has plans to redistribute gold and hard-earned money to “illegal immigrants” and asked people whether this is acceptable to them or not.

“They (Congress) have said that gold owned by our sisters would be equally distributed. Does the government have the right to take your hard-earned property?” PM Modi added.

Attacking the Congress party further, the prime minister claimed that the “Urban Naxal” thinking won’t even spare the ‘Mangalsutra’.

“When they (Congress) were in government, they said that Muslims have the first right over India’s resources. So, they will distribute this wealth (property and gold) among those having more children, among illegal immigrants...this Urban Naxal thinking won’t even spare your Mangalsutra,” he said.

‘Whatever he says in his speech is an insult to former Prime Minister’
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, criticising the content of his election speeches. He stated that whatever PM Modi says in his speech during the elections, is an insult to the former prime minister.

“The Prime Minister of India forgets the dignity of his position and whatever he says in his speech during the elections, is an insult to the former prime minister, the prime ministerial post and the constitution,” Tiwari said.

He went on to challenge PM Modi to substantiate his claims about the Congress party’s manifesto.

“I challenge the Prime Minister to show the page in our manifesto, to show the line where we have said that we will collect from everyone and give it to the Muslims. But the problem is that for the prime minister, the Hindu-Muslim topic is like oxygen,” Tiwari said.

He further said, “After being badly beaten in the first round and falling far behind, the prime minister is panicking, which is evident. He should accept my challenge; otherwise, he should apologise to the country or the country’s voters should punish him for lying.”

Notably, the first phase of the Lok Sabha election 2024 was completed on 19 April.

Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly speaking about amending the constitution saying that the ruling party does not have the power to do so since the constitution was written by Baba Saheb Ambedkar and not by any “random Baba”.

“The leaders of the BJP are speaking of finishing the constitution again and again. It is a constitution written by Baba Saheb Ambedkar, not by some random Baba. No one has the power to change it. They are not capable of doing it,” Yadav said speaking at a INDIA bloc rally at Ranchi.