Modi slams Revanth, says Congress imposed ‘RR’ on Telangana people

HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the people of Telangana were feeling ashamed to find ‘RR Tax’ under the Congress government in the state, when a super-hit movie, ‘RRR’, from the Telugu film industry had brought great praise for them.

“The RR Tax is the subject of discussion at every corner. Contractors and industrialists have been forced to cough up the ‘RR Tax’ by back-door means. This black money is routing to Delhi and the Telangana people are worried and aware of such black deeds,” he said.

In an all-out attack on the Congress at a huge public meeting in Chilver under Zaheerabad Lok Sabha limits, Modi said the Congress’ hand symbol symbolised five evils — false slogans and false promises,  vote bank politics, promotion of criminals and mafia, parivarwaad (family) politics, and corruption.

“When the world was marching ahead, the Congress landed the country in corruption with policy paralysis. The NDA government, with a lot of difficulty, pulled out the country from the mess. The Congress once again wants to take the country in the same old way,” Modi said, adding that the NDA government had taken many decisions to put the country back on track.

Modi said that people had seen how a decisive and strong government scripted history by fulfilling 500-year-old dreams of Hindus by constructing the Prabhu Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. When he asked people who did it, people responded by shouting “Modi Modi.”

Modi responded saying: “The vote from each one of you enabled the construction of the Ram Temple. The vote from each one of you empowers our commitment.”

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the Congress government in Telangana state had put a number of restrictions and tried hard to prevent the Shobha Yatra on Rama Navami festival for its vote bank politics for the sake of votes from a section of people.

“When the Congress was elected with a record number of MLAs and MPs in the united Andhra Pradesh in 2009, the party instead of strengthening BCs, SCs and STs, took away their constitutional rights and extended the same to Muslims and made the state their laboratory,” he said.

When 26 castes, from the Marathas to the Lingayats, were seeking inclusion in the OBC list, the Congress was not interested in their demand, but included Muslims in the OBC list.

Stating that he would continue reservations for Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs till he was alive, Modi repeated thrice that “Modi will not allow giving reservations to Muslims.”

Charging that the Congress was spreading lies about reservations, Modi asked its leaders why they did not support the demand for social justice of the Madiga community. “Why have they not supported the categorisation of SC reservations,” he asked and reiterated his commitment for the genuine rights of the Madiga community.

Stating that was is making an important announcement from the land of Telangana, Modi said that his government in its third term would celebrate in a grand manner the diamond jubilee of the Constitution (in 2025) by exposing at every street corner “the sins of the Congress and its leaders” by listing out how they played fraud with the Constitution.

Giving a case-by-case reference of how the Congress leaders violated the Constitution, Modi said that Jawaharlal Nehru had removed the images from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata from the Constitution. Nehru intentionally disconnected all the links which connected the rich heritage of the country with the Constitution and insulted Dr B.R. Ambedkar.

He said Indira Gandhi had imposed the Emergency and curbed press freedom and jailed nationalists. Rajiv Gandhi did a big sin against the Constitution by bringing a law to curb media rights.

“The Yuvraj (referring to Rahul Gandhi) committed the fourth sin by tearing up the papers of Cabinet decisions, thereby insulting the Prime Minister and his Cabinet,” Modi said, referring to the Congress leaders tearing up an ordinance to save convicted legislators from disqualification.

“The Constituent Assembly discussed the issue threadbare for three long years and decided not to extend reservations on the basis of religion. But Yuvraj and his team, for vote bank politics, have eaten away the rights of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and extended the same to Muslims by back-door method,” Modi explained.

Asking the Congress to hear him, Modi announced that the Constitution was a holy book for him to run the government.

“As Chief Minister of Gujarat, I celebrated 60 years of the Constitution (in 2010) when no other Chief Minister in the country did so. The Constitution was placed on the top of an elephant. I walked along with it,” he recalled.

“After being elected Prime Minister in 2014, I bowed before Parliament and then entered Parliament Hall. In the second term in 2019, the Constitution was placed in the Central Hall of Parliament with all respect and I bowed before it," he recalled.

“On the other hand, the Congress is not ready to respect their own party constitution. Then AICC president Sitaram Kesri was humiliated and Sonia Gandhi took over the chair. Is it not against your party ethics and principles," Modi said that ‘Yuvraj’ was not ready to accept the fact.

Giving examples of how Congress leaders violate parliamentary principles when they are not in power, Modi asked them not to fool the people by shedding crocodile tears. He said that Congress MPs had not allowed Parliament to run and also often spoke against EVMs and the decisions of the Election Commission of India.

Stating that conducting elections was a major festival in democracy, Modi referred to a fake video of home minister Amit Shah's speech at an election meeting at Siddipet recently. He charged that the Congress leaders were not ready to allow proper functioning of the system. “They have made fake videos of a person holding a constitutional post to mislead people and create unrest in society.”

Modi said that not a single political party in the “INDI alliance” was contesting 270 Lok Sabha seats; the Congress had fielded the fewest number of candidates in any general election since 1951-52.

Modi said that the only answer for the country’s problems was the BJP and appealed to voters to elect party candidates B.B. Patil from Zaheerabad and M. Raghunandan Rao from Medak.