Is Congress only for Muslim men: PM Modi takes dig at Rahul Gandhi in UP

Lucknow: Three days before the start of Parliament’s Monsoon Session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday threw a challenge at the Opposition Congress to support the triple talaq bill and mocked Rahul Gandhi for his reported comment that his is a “party of Muslims”.

Wondering the if the Congress stood only with Muslim men, Mr Modi said at a public meeting in Lucknow, “The real face of these parties was revealed by their approach to triple talaq.”

“The Congress should say whether it is a party of Muslim men or of Muslim women also. Their leaders have refused to recognise the kind of pain and suffering that our Muslim sisters go through due to triple talaq. Several Muslim nations have already banned triple talaq,” he said.

With an eye on wooing Muslim women suffering due to triple talaq, the Prime Minister said, “These dynastic parties are toiling to oust Modi. I want to tell them that there are still four or five days left for the Parliament session to begin. Meet the victims of talaq and halala, ask them about their plight, and then put your point of view in Parliament.”

“When the BJP brought the anti-talaq legislation, these parties had put hurdles even then. They want that triple talaq should continue, and the life of Muslim women should remain miserable. But I assure you that I will make these political parties understand, and take them along so that Muslim women do not face any problems due to triple talaq,” he said.

The Prime Minister’s attack on Congress comes ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, starting on July 18, when a bill abolishing instant divorce among Muslims, already passed in the Lok Sabha, is scheduled to be taken up in Rajya Sabha. The Congress and some other Opposition parties have expressed reservations on the bill, specifically the provisions on the imprisonment of the man giving triple talaq and maintenance allowance for his wife, and the ruling BJP has accused them of trying to stall it.

The Congress had denied that Mr Gandhi ever said that his is a party of Muslims and sees the BJP’s repeated reference to the “concocted” news report as an effort to polarise the 2019 elections along communal lines to counter the Opposition’s unity moves in Uttar Pradesh and other states.

The Prime Minister also hit out at the BSP and the SP, without naming them, and questioned the motive of arch rivals Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in joining hands.

“Parties that do not see eye-to-eye are now joining hands because of Modi. These are family-oriented parties that have no concern for the poor and the weaker sections of society. They are trying to derail development because they do not want the poor to get empowered and aware,” he said.

He said that those who talk of Lohia and Ambedkar do not follow their principles. “Have these people not belied your hope and trust?  You voted for them and they have worked for their own families and to fill their coffers,” Mr Modi said.

On his second visit in a fortnight to Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha, Mr Modi began his two-day tour from Azamgarh where he laid the foundation stone for the 340-km Purvanchal Expressway which will connect Lucknow with Ghazipur at a cost of Rs 23,000 crore.

He said because of the policies of the previous governments, eastern Uttar Pradesh had languished.

The BJP chose Azamgarh as the venue of the Prime Minister’s rally since the district happens to be the party’s weakest link in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Of the 10 Assembly seats here, the Samajwadi Party had won five, the BSP won four and the BJP could win only one in the 2017 Assembly elections. Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav represents the Azamgarh seat in Lok Sabha.  

Hours before Mr Modi laid the foundation stone for the expressway, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav claimed that it was his own government’s project which was being relaunched.    

“This was originally Samajwadi Purvanchal Expressway, but the word Samajwadi has been dropped,” the Samajwadi Party chief said at a press conference at the party headquarters in Lucknow.

Lauding the work done by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the Prime Minister said that he had effectively checked crime and corruption, created an atmosphere for growth and development and spent every penny honestly.

Later, the Prime Minister visited his parliamentary constituency Varanasi where he launched projects worth Rs 1,000 crore. He released a book Meri Kashi that chronicles the work done by him in the past four years.

The Prime Minister began his speeches, both in Azamgarh and in Varanasi, in Bhojpuri that won him instant applause.