The BJP on Tuesday reacted sharply to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that the consecration of the Ram Temple of Ayodhya was being made into a “BJP event”. It stated that the faith of Hindus cannot be “manipulated” and that people could see through “his [Mr. Gandhi’s] atrocious lies”.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP’s national headquarters in New Delhi, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that “Ram Temple was a deeply felt emotion by Hindus in every corner of the country.”
“Rahul Gandhi lives in a la-la world. He thinks everything he says is predicated on nobody understanding the truth and he can get away with these atrocious lies. He tried so in 2014 and 2019 and is trying again. The people of India are wise enough. They understand the truth and what his politics is about,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi had earlier said in Nagaland that it was difficult for his party’s leaders to attend the January 22 ceremony as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had turned it into a “political event” centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His remarks at a press conference during the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra here came days after the Congress top brass declined the invitation to attend the Ram Temple event.
On NITI Aayog report
Mr. Chandrashekhar also lauded the Modi government’s pro-poor welfare policies and development work after a NITI Aayog report said that over 24.82 crore people had been lifted from multi dimensional poverty in the last nine years.
“The Modi government has reversed the ‘anyay’ (injustice),” he said taking a swipe at Mr. Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra, which is currently under way.
“The Congress played on the poor for decades,” he said adding that the Modi government has made a “transformational impact”. “Since 2015, more than 1 lakh start-ups and 112 unicorns have come up,” he added, a change from 2012 when a parliamentary report had noted that only nine groups had cornered 97% of the net worth in the banking system.
There will be 10 lakh start-ups and 10 thousand unicorns in the next 10 years, he claimed, which has led to a steady decline in the unemployment rate, he added.
