A day after the Centre distributed citizenship certificates to 14 people under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi pegged it as an example of ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ — a phrase the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been harping this Lok Sabha election. This was the first set of citizenship certificates under the CAA, protests against which had brought sections of the national capital to a standstill in 2019-2020.
Addressing a rally in Lalganj, in Azamgarh, which was once the turf of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his family, Modi also spoke on issues including Article 370, minority appeasement and goondaism in Azamgarh. Here are the four big messages he tried to send out while hitting out at the Congress and the Samajwadi Party in the same breath.
CAA=MODI KI GUARANTEE
The Prime Minister himself coined the phrase which gained so much traction that the BJP named its manifesto after it — Modi ki guarantee this time. Be it eradicating abject poverty, handholding those above 70 years for their treatments or creating more jobs, the Prime Minister has repeatedly used the term. But this time, he started his speech with a fresh example of Wednesday when the Director (Census) granted citizenship certificates to the very first batch of minorities of the three neighbouring countries who had sought refuge in India. Photos of handing over the certificates — a long-standing promise of the Modi government — were also released. It affects many in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in particular who had fled persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Modi instantly referred to it as a fresh example of how he delivers what he promises. “The CAA rules are the newest example of what is Modi’s promise. Yesterday itself, we started giving citizenship to people under CAA. The first lot has already been given citizenship. All these brothers and sisters are Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, and Christians and they have been living in India as refugees for a long time. They are the victims of the religion-based partition of India,” remarked Modi.
Interestingly, he also used the reference of Mahatma Gandhi who “himself promised that they can come to India any time”. PM said the Opposition used Gandhi for political purposes but did not remember his promise. He also accused the Opposition who opposed CAA of being ‘dhongi’ (fake) and ‘communal’.
KASHMIR MINUS 370
If CAA was Modi’s biggest selling point at Lalganj, Kashmir minus Article 370 was his next. Here, too, he used a fresh instance of record voting in Srinagar in the recently held Lok Sabha election there, connecting it to the abrogation of Article 370. With images of serpentine queues outside polling booths in Kashmir still fresh in people’s minds, Modi reminded them why it has been made possible.
“The fourth phase of voting took place in Srinagar after 40 years. India’s Democratic festival was celebrated there, and after the voting, people were proud that they would form the government of India this time,” said PM Modi. Connecting it with Article 370, he said, “The excitement of people of Srinagar shows no one can bring back 370 to do vote bank politics,” he said, hinting at the Opposition that animatedly opposed the abrogation in Parliament.
He also connected it to Uttar Pradesh where he was addressing the rally. He said the family members used to be worried about the men they sent in security forces placed in Kashmir due to incessant attacks, blasts and stone-pelting incidents. “Previously the city would shut on the polling day. But this time it has broken records of many years in the past (as far as participation is concerned),” said Modi.
APPEASEMENT CHARGE
Consistent with his attacks on the Congress and its allies for their ‘appeasement politics’, Thursday was no different but with a twist. He said, “SP & Congress, ‘dal 2 hain, lekin dukaan ek hi hai‘ (They are two sides of the same coin). They sell lies, appeasement and corruption. They have now come up with a ‘triple dose’ of appeasement…”
He detailed what he meant by ‘triple dose’ – “Snatching reservation from backwards and giving it to their vote bank,” inheritance tax and giving a share of the budget to the minorities. But he did not use the word ‘Muslims’ unlike in previous instances. Instead, he chose words like ‘vote bank’ and ‘minority’.
But this time, he projected his objections as a unifying thought and not as a divisive idea, as is being projected by the Opposition. He cited Ambedkar and said, “We need to be careful about those who want to divide and rule us.”
TERROR TAG & ‘GOONDA-RAJ’
Azamgarh was not just the turf of influential SP leader Azam Khan but also gained a terror tag during the UPA days due to many terror cases and their perpetrators having links to this city of Uttar Pradesh. However, things have changed in the last decade. Modi reminded the Congress and the SP — who are fighting the election together in Uttar Pradesh — about it, from his Lalganj rally.
He also reminded the crowd about the abysmal law and order situation of the state during the SP tenure. Crediting Yogi Adityanath for ensuring it’s a thing of the past, he said, “You have seen the old days of SP’s ‘goondaraj’… Yogi ji has rightly implemented my ‘swacchata abhiyan’ against rioters.”
The Prime Minister was referring to hardline actions like running bulldozers on properties of accused of heinous crimes in Uttar Pradesh that have also become popular in other states like Madhya Pradesh as well.
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