Lashing out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments against industrialists, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at an election rally in Jamshedpur said businessmen would think “50 times” before investing in Congress-ruled States.
India General Elections 2024 updates, May 19
“From this land of industry, I want to raise a serious issue. I want to challenge the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States, such as Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh. This is not my political statement. The media that calls itself neutral should ask them. The Congress’s princes speak against industries, industrialists and investment every day. Which industrialist would want to invest in their States? What will happen to the youth of those States?” Mr. Modi said while campaigning for BJP candidate Bidyut Mahato on Sunday.
He further said, “The Congress considers entrepreneurs as enemies of the country. Its leaders openly declare they will attack businessmen who do not give them money. The Congress and JMM [Jharkhand Mukti Morcha] are not concerned about the country’s industries. Many industrialists come to me and say that they will not go to those States because they are anti-industrialist. After listening to the language of the shehzada [prince], any industrialist will think 50 times before going there. If the leader of the party speaks like this then the Chief Ministers of those States too will have a similar mindset and their [industrialists] money will be wasted.”
He also took a dig at Mr. Gandhi for choosing to contest from Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, alleging the “shehzada” had fled from Wayanad, his other Lok Sabha seat.
“He is going around telling everyone that ‘this is my mother’s seat’. When an eight-year-old goes to the same school his father studied, he doesn’t say ‘this is my father’s school’. These family-oriented people are writing their wills with parliamentary seats. Jharkhand has to be saved from such family-oriented parties,” Mr. Modi said.
Mr. Modi also accused Mr. Gandhi of speaking the “language of Maoists”. He alleged that parties like the Congress never cared about people and misled them with slogans such as “Garibi Hatao”(remove poverty) for 60 years.
“This is Modi, who brought 25 crore poor people out of poverty,” he added.
Mr. Modi also attacked former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who was arrested in a land scam case, without mentioning his name. He said the Jharkhand government committed a scam and grabbed the land of tribals and also made an attempt to usurp land belonging to the Army. Mr. Modi pointed out that he is looking for a way to return the recovered money to those who owned it.
“The mountains of notes recovered from their houses are your money. Modi is recovering money from the hideouts of these dishonest people. I am not recovering this money to take it to the government’s treasury. I am looking for a way to return all this money to the poor people who owned it. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he asserted.
Lashing out at the JMM and Congress, Mr. Modi said these parties have amassed black money in their houses and have looted Jharkhand. He termed Congress party as the “mother of corruption”.
He reiterated that the Congress and its allies aim to “X-ray the properties of the poor” to snatch them and also want to take away reservation from SC, ST, and OBC communities and hand it over to the Muslims.
Published - May 19, 2024 01:21 pm IST
