By IANS,
Lucknow : The Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) may project themselves as “custodians of Muslim rights” but had always deceived the community they saw as a vote bank, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said Monday and termed Manmohan Singh a “weak prime minister”.
“Congress, SP and BSP have always deceived Muslims. After exploiting Muslims, the parties kick them like a football,” Modi said at an election rally in Aligarh district,
about 300 km from here.
Accusing the Congress of appeasing Muslims to get political mileage, Modi said: “The Sachar committee (set up to look into the social, economic and educational status of Muslims) was constituted by the Congress-led central government only to misguide Muslims.”
The chief minister, who has often been asked to apologise for the 2002 Gujarat riots, said the condition of Muslims in Gujarat was better than that in other states.
Terming Manmohan Singh a weak prime minister, Modi criticised him for not taking any action over the atrocities committed on Sikh community in Pakistan, being targeted by Taliban militants in the restive tribal areas.
“I want to know what action our PM has taken in this regard?” he asked.
Only three members of the Gandhi family – Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi – had been describing Manmohan Singh as a strong and successful PM, while the fact was he had failed to deliver his responsibilities, Modi said.
He also accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of not taking any concrete steps to counter the illegal cross border migration from Bangladesh.
Blaming BSP and SP for backwardness in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said: “Earlier, criminals used to ride bicycles (election symbol of the SP) and now they are riding the elephant (election symbol of the BSP) and creating obstructions in the development of the state.”