AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Monday sarcastically welcomed “a change in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s perception of Kerala, from a place which only recently compared with Somalia, to ‘God’s own country’.”
Mr. Singh’s reference was to the Prime Minister’s speech in Kozhikode in Kerala on Sunday where he termed the State “God’s Own Country,” contrary to his criticism of the State as on par with Somalia.
“We are grateful to Mr. Modi for changing his attitude about Kerala,” said Mr. Singh.
“When we think of Kerala, we think of God’s Own Country, it has an impression of purity and holiness.”
However, during the run-up to the Kerala Assembly election earlier this year, Mr. Modi drew criticism when he said the child death ratio among the Scheduled Tribe community in the southern State was worse than that in Somalia.
Stand on minoritiesMr. Singh said the Prime Minister also said that the BJP had to win back the confidence of minority communities and empower them. “But how can you empower them when you are facing issues like ghar wapsi, beef eating, when members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are allowed to beat up Dalits. Did he empower minorities in Gujarat when he was Chief Minister? Did he empower riot-hit people in Gujarat? Whatever he is saying is for public consumption but not for action,” the Congress leader said.
Mr. Singh, who is in Goa on a three-day visit to oversee Congress’s organisational affairs in view of the 2017 Assembly elections, condemned hurling of shoe at party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh.
“In a public meeting any person can do anything. Shoes have been hurled, things have been thrown, all these things happen and we strongly condemn this kind of attitude,” Mr. Singh said.
