Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah on Monday asked the media not to consider his attacks on Congress president Rahul Gandhi as personal ones.
Addressing a press conference in Ambikapur town of north Chhattisgarh, he said the term “Congress-mukt Bharat” did not imply an India free from the Congress party but an India free from the Congress culture.
“Don’t consider it a personal attack. He [Rahul Gandhi] presented some issues in front of people and I have only tried to answer them. No one is a danger in a democracy. Our party has done good work and as long as we continue it, the people will keep supporting us. I am asking an account of four generations (of Gandhi family’s rule) from him because he is the Congress president and his family has ruled this country for 55 years. When you become the president of the Congress, you have to answer about the Congress’s legacies — the way I am answering about the BJP’s, being its president. There can’t be an objection to this,” Mr. Shah said, while responding to a question on whether he considered Mr. Gandhi a threat.
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Mr. Shah, who is on a two-day trip to poll-bound Chhattisgarh, had accused the Congress of spreading lies and demanded an account of the 55 year-long rule of the Gandhi family at a rally in Sarguja district of north Chhattisgarh on Sunday.
To a question whether his party does not want any opposition in the country when it talks of “Congress-mukt Bharat”, the BJP president responded, “When we talk of Congress-mukt Bharat, we imply the end of Congress culture, not an end of the opposition. Democracy is not possible without an opposition. But it is not my responsibility to keep alive the Congress. It is Rahul Gandhi’s responsibility. Your question is directed at a wrong address.”
He also denied that the middle class was moving away from the BJP and said the government was equally concerned about the rising fuel prices. “If the middle class had been moving away from us, then we would not have won elections on such a massive scale. This is a misleading propaganda. All sections of society have supported the BJP which is why we could get elected and form the government in 14 States. The government is thinking about fuel prices constantly and in the last 12 days, they have been reduced,” Mr. Shah said.
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Tackling terror
Asked about the Congress’s allegations that the highest number of soldiers have died on the border during the Modi government’s four-year rule, he shot back saying the Congress should also give the number of terrorists killed during these four years. “The highest number of terrorists have been killed in these four years.”
With Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh by his side, the BJP president reiterated that his party’s “Mission 65” for the Assembly election in Chhattisgarh was going to succeed and claimed that the people had made up their mind to elect a BJP government for the fourth time.
When we talk of Congress-mukt Bharat, we imply end of Congress culture, not an end of the opposition