By a staff correspondent
Dehradun, 11 Apr: There are three ways of looking at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Rishikesh rally on Thursday in broad terms. PM Modi very carefully mixed the Hindutva issue with his exhortation of a stable government for the purpose of development.
He said he would work 24X7 so that India could become a fully developed nation by 2047.
And when he was speaking at IDPL ground in the spiritual town of Rishikesh, Modi knew very well that he was not very far away from the holy river Ganga. Naturally, issues like the Ram Temple and the Ganga were high on his agenda.
Modi kept attacking Congress repeatedly accusing it of trying to destroy Hindu religion and exhorted the people to teach the opposition party a lesson in the 19 April election.
The Prime Minister said the Congress party is opposed to, both, development and the country’s cultural heritage.
But Modi’s speech left the Congress fuming. “When he spoke on Hindutva, it would have been better if Modiji would have uttered some words on issues like the Kedarnath gold theft, Joshimath subsidence, Ankita Bhandari murder case, the rising unemployment,” said Uttarakhand Congress President Karan Mahara.
Sharpening his attack, Modi said, “No one can forget that the Congress party has raised doubts on the existence of Lord Ram. It is the Congress which first opposed the Ram temple then created many obstacles in its construction.”
But those who built the Ram temple forgave all the sins of the Congress leaders and went to their house and invited them to the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple but they boycotted that too, he said.
Modi claimed Congress has now publicly declared and pledged that it will destroy the power of Goddess Shakti in Hindu religion. “This Congress wants to destroy the power of Shakti, Maa Dhari Devi, Maa Chandrabadni Devi, Maa Jwalpa Devi. There are conspiracies going on to destroy the faith of Uttarakhand and these words of Congress will add fuel to the fire,” Modi claimed.
He said that it is the responsibility of all of the people to protect the culture of Uttarakhand. “You all should not forget that this is the same Congress which has been saying that Har Ki Pauri is not situated on the banks of Maa Ganga, it is situated on the banks of a canal. They are raising doubts on the existence of the Ganga. The people of Uttarakhand will teach them a lesson,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that the stable government led by him has made the country much stronger in the last 10 years than before. Before that, there were weak and unstable governments in the country which resulted in the spread of terrorism in India, he said. But when a strong government came after 2014, terrorists were killed in their homes, Modi said.
Modi said that his government abolished Article 370 after seven decades, made a law against triple talaq, gave reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies and provided ‘OROP’ (One Rank, One Pension) to ex-servicemen. He asked the people to once again make BJP candidates victorious on all five seats of Uttarakhand to fulfil the resolve of a developed India.
