Corrupt holding rallies to stop corruption: In first rallies in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Modi takes aim at INDIA bloc

“The Congress and the INDI Alliance have already shown their intentions. The shehzada (prince) of the Congress royal family announced that if the country chooses the BJP government for the third time, there would be fire,” he said at a rally in Rudrapur city, in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district.

“Those who ruled for 60 years, and have been out of power for just 10 years, are talking about burning the country. Do you accept this? Is this language correct? Is this the language of democracy?… The Congress party, which has the mentality of the Emergency, does not have faith in democracy,” he said.

उत्तराखंड सहित देशभर के नौजवानों का सपना ही मोदी का संकल्प है। pic.twitter.com/huprrKpu4k

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 2, 2024

The PM was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s speech during Sunday’s INDIA bloc rally in Delhi, during which the Congress leader said, “If the BJP wins this match-fixing election and changes the Constitution after that, it will set the country on fire…”

Bringing up the issue again at a campaign rally in Rajasthan’s Kotputli, Modi quipped that this was the first election where top Congress leaders “aren’t talking of winning their own election”. He said, “They are quiet on whether they will win or not, but they threaten that if the BJP wins, the nation will be on fire.”

“This is the first election where parivaarvadi (nepotistic) families are holding rallies to save their family, where all the corrupt are holding rallies to stop action on corruption. I say bhrashtachar hatao (remove corruption), and they say bhrastachari bachao (save the corrupt) – you have to decide. Tell me, should corruption be finished or not? Should the corrupt be punished or not?” he asked.

Back in Uttarakhand, Modi campaigned for BJP candidates contesting in the Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar and Almora seats – Ajay Bhatt and Ajay Tamta, respectively – and suggested that the BJP’s victory was inevitable and that the Congress was trying to incite people.

“They want to throw the country into anarchy. A senior Congress leader in Karnataka talked about separating South India from the country. Instead of punishing him, the Congress gave him a ticket,” Modi said. He was referring to Karnataka MP D K Suresh, who said in February that the people of South India might demand a separate country if “the injustice of not providing the rightful share of taxes (to the southern states) continued”.

He also brought up the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, criticising the Congress for its opposition to the legislation, and emphasising that it was part of the BJP’s commitment to granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries.

“The Congress encourages intruders, but when the BJP gives Indian citizenship to those having faith in ‘Maa Bharti’ through CAA, the Congress is most troubled. People here know that the refugees coming from Pakistan and Bangladesh are mostly Dalit families, Sikhs, and Bengalis. But the Congress is opposing citizenship to those people. No matter how much Congress protests, they have Modi’s guarantee,” he said.

Raising the Katchatheevu Island issue, Modi criticised the Congress for ceding the territory – located around 30 kilometres off the coast of Tamil Nadu – to Sri Lanka in 1974.

उत्तराखंड के हमारे भाई-बहनों के लिए भी तमिलनाडु में कांग्रेस का ये गुनाह जानना जरूरी है… pic.twitter.com/X55VsZNIVs

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 2, 2024

“The Congress, whose leaders talk about breaking the country, and which gave away Katchatheevu – can they protect the country? They even stopped doing development in border villages, calling them the last villages. It is the BJP government that recognised those villages as the first villages of the country,” he said.

He accused the Congress of disrespecting the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff, the late General Bipin Rawat, who hailed from Uttarakhand. Modi also said former Army personnel would have missed out on the benefits of One Rank One Pension if not for his fulfilment of that promise. Additionally, he asserted that corrupt individuals are resorting to threats and verbal abuse against him, promising even stronger anti-corruption measures in his third term.

Highlighting the schemes and achievements of the BJP government in Uttarakhand, he said significant progress was made in infrastructure, housing, sanitation, and financial inclusion initiatives.

In his speech in Rajasthan, Modi said that under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, around Rs 20,000 crore was transferred into the accounts of over 85 lakh farmers in Rajasthan.

It’s BJP all the way across Rajasthan! Here are some glimpses from Kotputli. pic.twitter.com/qlVCGSLZnR

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 2, 2024

He also said free ration is being given to 80 crore people of the country, which will continue to be given for the next five years; that over 50 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened; and that Ayushman cards were introduced for free medical treatment up to Rs 5 lakh, among other initiatives.

Kotputli, where Modi began his Rajasthan campaign, comes under the Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat, and the BJP has fielded Rao Rajendra Singh against Congress’s Anil Chopra there. Making an appeal for Singh and other BJP candidates, the PM said that Rajasthan gave the BJP-led NDA all 25 seats in 2014 and 2019, and that it would repeat the feat in 2024 too.

ये विकसित राजस्थान और विकसित भारत के संकल्प को सशक्त करने का चुनाव है। pic.twitter.com/eOxm6LFDLb

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 2, 2024

Voting in 12 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan will take place in the first phase of the election on April 19, and the other 13 seats will go to the polls in the second phase – April 26. All five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand go to the polls in the first phase.