TCN News
New Delhi: Ahead of the second phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one of his most controversial speeches said on Sunday (April 21) that the Congress would give the nation’s wealth to people with “more children” if they were elected to power.
Calling leaders of the grand old party “urban naxals” while addressing a rally at Rajasthan’s Banswara, he said, “The Congress manifesto calls for calculating the gold owned by mothers and sisters, gathering information about it and then distributing the property.”
Asking people “whom would they (the Congress) distribute the country’s wealth to”, the prime minister himself replied, “The Congress in its manifesto said they will distribute the country’s property. Manmohan Singh’s government had earlier said Muslims had the first right on the country’s assets. This means, they will distribute the wealth among those who have more children, among infiltrators.”
He once again asked the participants of the public meeting, “Should your hard-earned money go to the infiltrators? Do you approve of this?”
Modi was referring to a statement made by Singh in 2006 wherein the former prime minister had urged states to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, especially Muslims, are empowered to share equitable in the fruits of development”.
“I believe our collective priorities are clear: agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investments needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes (OBCs), minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will need to be revitalised. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibility whose demands will have to be fitted within the overall resources’ availability,” Singh had said in the statement, which was referred to by Modi completely out of context.
The remarks at the time had caused a controversy, which led the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to release a statement — saying that it was misinterpreted intentionally and maliciously.
Following the controversy, the PMO stated that all priority areas, including SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities, were included in Manmohan Singh’s reference to the first claim on resources.