Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14 accused the Congress party of promoting “votebank politics” by opposing the recently passed Waqf (Amendment) Act, and charged it with treating Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as “second-class citizens.”
Addressing a public gathering in Hisar after inaugurating a commercial flight from Hisar to Ayodhya and laying the foundation stone of the new terminal at Maharaja Agrasen Airport, Modi said, “Congress has turned into a destroyer of the Constitution. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar dreamed of an equal society, where every poor and backward citizen could live with dignity and chase their aspirations. But Congress chose to spread the virus of votebank politics instead.”
“In the time of the Congress, the doors of the bank used to not even open for SC, ST OBC; loan, welfare everything was just a dream, but now the biggest beneficiaries of Jan Dhan accounts are SC, ST brothers and sisters,” he said.
He said there were “lakhs of hectares of land” under the Waqf Board, but the properties and assets have not been used properly to help the needy. “There are lakhs of hectares of land in the name of Waqf. If benefits from Waqf properties had been given to the needy, they would have benefited. But land mafia benefited from these properties,” the Prime Minister said.
He said with the amendment in the Waqf law the “loot of land” would stop. “The loot of the poor will stop with this amended Waqf law. Under the new Waqf law, land or property belonging to any adivasi (tribal community) cannot be touched by the Waqf Board. Poor Muslims and Pasmanda Muslims will get their rights. This is real social justice,” Modi said.
‘Congress Humiliated Ambedkar’
PM also accused the Congress of “humiliating” Babasaheb Ambedkar and trying to erase his memory, noting that the party had fought elections against him. “We should not forget what the Congress did to Babasaheb. It humiliated him while he was alive. The party made him lose elections twice.
The Congress even tried to erase his memory and tried to destroy his ideas forever. Dr Ambedkar was the protector of the Constitution, but the Congress has become the destroyer of the Constitution,” Modi said.
