Bhopal: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over BJP playing the religious nationalism card, saying that “the BJP wants you (the people) to chant Jai Shree Ram and then starve to death”.
Addressing a roadside meeting in the district headquarters of Shajapur in Madhya Pradesh on the sidelines of his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Gandhi cautioned people against the move by the BJP to distract the public attention from the real issues facing the country by “hyping non issues”.
“Modi wants you to remain busy with mobile phones, chant Jai Shri Ram and then starve to death,” he said.
Gandhi’s Madhya Pradesh leg of yatra entered the fourth day on Tuesday. The former AICC president said that the Centre failed to address the real issues facing the country, such as unemployment and inflation, and resorted to diversionary tactics to cover up its inadequacies.
Later, Gandhi had an interesting encounter with a group of slogan-shouting BJP activists while his convoy was heading for Ujjain from Shajapur.
He was greeted with slogans of “Modi Modi” and “Jai Shri Ram” by the BJP activists near Shajapur. The Congress leader halted his convoy upon spotting the BJP workers and got down from his vehicle to meet them. He was seen exchanging greetings and handshaking with them. The sloganeers then gave him potatoes asking him to convert them into gold. Gandhi accepted the potatoes from them and then went back to his vehicle. He waved and blew kisses at them while resuming his journey to Ujjain.
The potatoes are about a purported edited video that went viral ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat in which Gandhi was seen promising local farmers to get their potatoes converted into gold.
“We gave Gandhi the potatoes and asked him to transform them into gold. Gandhi said he would return the gold on his next visit (to MP) and then parted with us after saying thanks,” local BJP leader Ankit Acharya said.
Later, Gandhi visited Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain where he performed puja at the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine along with Congress veteran and former chief minister Kamal Nath. He then held a roadshow in the holy city of Ujjain.
Addressing a public meeting in Ujjain, Gandhi said that one who is scared only cultivates hatred in oneself. Those who fearlessly face the difficulties in life can achieve anything, he said. “It is easy to spread love in an environment of hate,” he said.
In his reaction to Gandhi’s visit to the Ujjain temple, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that the Congress leader should seek forgiveness from the deity of the shrine for the “sin” committed by his party by denying a temple for Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
Former chief minister and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan quipped that there was no meaning in visiting a temple if one lacked devotion to the deity.
