- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is normally seen talking on development issues while campaigning for elections but on Friday (5), five days ahead of the elections in the southern state of Karnataka, he was found to have shifted his focus from development to terrorism-nationalism to attack the opposition Indian National Congress which is eyeing a return to power in the state dethroning Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a public rally in Ballari in eastern Karnataka, Modi said it is important to have a robust defence and law and order system in order to make the southern state the No.1 state in India. He said it is equally important to keep the state free from terrorism and while the BJP is always tough when it comes to terrorism, the Congress “develops stomach pain” on the action against the menace. He also invoked the issue of the controversial Hindi film “The Kerala Story” to drive home his point.
He then accused the Congress of bowing before terrorism for the sake of its vote bank.
Modi also said that business, information technology industry, agriculture and the culture in the southern state would be destroyed in an atmosphere of terrorism.
“It is because of the fear of [losing] vote bank that Congress has lost its courage to utter a single word against terrorism. It is because of its vote bank politics that Congress nurtured terrorism. In the changing times, the nature of terrorism is also changing… The sound of bombs, rifles and pistols could be heard. But the terrorism of a new type, which undermines society from within, makes no sound.
“”The Kerala Story” is a film is based on such a conspiracy in Kerala… See the bad luck of the country, Congress is seen hand in glove with this terrorism. It is, from the back door, doing politics and deals with people with such terrorist mindset,” he was reported as saying.
He accused the opposition party of opposing “The Kerala Story” which he said exposed the consequences of terrorism.
“‘The Kerala Story’ film is based on a terror conspiracy. It shows the ugly truth of terrorism and exposes the design of terrorists. Congress is opposing the film made on terrorism and standing with terror tendencies. Congress has shielded terrorism for the vote bank”, Modi added.
The film revolves around forced religious conversion and reportedly claims that nearly 32,000 women in the southern Indian state of Kerala were converted to Islam and many were taken to the Islamic State-ruled Syria when the terror outfit was at the peak of its power.
Modi also accused the Congress of leaving Indians stranded in Sudan, which is witnessing a deadly clash between the military and paramilitary forces, at the mercy of the attackers. He said the opposition party was trying to play dirty politics if something undesirable happened to Indians stuck in the north African country.
A major controversy broke out last month after Siddaramaiah, a Congress leader and former chief minister of Karnataka, accused the Modi government of doing little for 31 members of the state’s Hakki Pikki tribal community left stranded in Sudan. Foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hit back at Siddaramaiah accusing him of doing politics and it led to a major war of words with the Congress targeting the diplomat.
Last week, the Congress made a police complaint against Indian home minister Amit Shah after the latter claimed at an election rally in Karnataka’s Belagavi that the state would witness riots if the Congress was voted to power in this election.
The Congress also faced a backlash after claiming that it would ban the Hindu right-wing Bajrang Dal in Karnataka in its election manifesto. The grand-old party was found to be divided over the matter after the BJP hit back over the idea with a senior leader saying there was no proposal to ban the outfit.
