PM Modi: Congress will bulldoze Ram Temple if elected

New Delhi, May 17

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Congress would run a bulldozer over the Ram Temple if the Opposition INDIA bloc was voted to power.

Addressing a poll rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki, the PM said, “If elected, the Congress is planning to challenge the Supreme Court’s order on the Ram Temple. It will eventually demolish the temple. If the SP-Congress comes to power, they will again send Ram Lalla to a tent, and a bulldozer will be rolled over the temple.”

Anti-quota approach: Jairam hits out at PM

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh launched a counterattack on the PM. Citing the website of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Jairam said, “The website features an article that raises objections to the policy of reservation. This anti-reservation approach is against the Constitution of BR Ambedkar. The RSS and BJP are against the Constitution and the INDIA bloc is fighting to save it.” Reacting to the PM’s bulldozer comment, Jairam said, “The outgoing PM today said the INDIA bloc should learn from Uttar Pradesh CM where to run the bulldozer. See how Yogi’s bulldozer is against the reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.”

He blamed the Congress for the Partition and said “if INDI partners are elected, they will give properties of people to those who launched vote jihad for them”.

PM Modi’s reference was to recent remarks by Maria Alam, the niece of Congress veteran and former Law Minister Salman Khurshid, who, while campaigning for the INDIA bloc candidate in Farrukhabad, appealed for “vote jihad”.

Addressing rallies in Barabanki, Fatehpur and Hamirpur, the PM said nothing was more important to the SP and Congress than their vote banks.

“When the freedom struggle was going on and there were talks of dividing the nation, people used to ask if that was possible. But it was done. They did it. They can go to any extent,” PM Modi said, attacking the Congress and accusing its INDIA ally SP of “bowing before appeasement”.

“SP-Congress will distribute benefits to those who are waging vote jihad for them,” PM Modi said in Hamirpur, adding the INDI bloc had been “knocked out in the first four phases”.

Attacking the Congress for its policy on terrorism, the PM said, “The Congress used to nurture a group of separatists in Kashmir. Pakistan attacked our country. The Congress government gave them a clean chit. Who did these people accuse of terrorism? They fabricated a new lie in the name of saffron terrorism.”