File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Taking on Narendra Modi for his shrill campaign rhetoric, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said he was "neither shocked nor surprised" by his "language" after BJP’s Lok Sabha phase 1 performance but wanted to meet him to explain his party’s manifesto so that the Prime Minister do not make any "false" statement.
In a two-page letter, Kharge claimed that it has become a habit for Modi to "seize on few words taken out of context and create communal divide", while asking him not to get carried away by the claps of his own people, who are not allowing him to hear the voices of right-thinking people.
Kharge referred to Modi’s speeches since Sunday “purposely equating” Congress’ remarks on rich-poor divide with Hindus and Muslims while questioning his government was saving the ‘mangalsutras’ of women whose farmer-husbands commit suicide due to farm crisis.
“Your ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ works for the corporates whose taxes you reduced, while the salaried class pays higher taxes. The poor pays GST even on food and salt and rich corporates claim GST refunds. That is why when we talk of inequality between rich and poor, you are purposely equating it with Hindu and Muslim,” he said.
Making it clear that the Congress manifesto is “for the people of India whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist,” he also said, “I think you have still not forgotten your pre-independence allies, the Muslim League and colonial masters”.
In a strong rebuttal to Modi’s allegation that Congress will snatch even the ‘mangalsutras’ of women, Kharge said Modi and his government had been "repeatedly turned away from the atrocities and backward women are facing".
“Today you talk about their mangalsutra. Isn’t your government responsible for the atrocities against women in Manipur, atrocities against Dalit girls, garlanding of rapists? When farmers are committing suicides under your government, how are you protecting their wives and children?” he said.
Kharge also alleged that Modi’s government was snatching the earnings and wealth of the poor through acts like demonetisation, which was an "organised loot and legalised plunder" to transfer the money deposited by the poor in the banks to the rich in the form of loans.