Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday accused Narendra Modi of being under the “dangerous” illusion that he is the prime minister of just the BJP and the Hindus.
Gehlot said Modi gets respect abroad only because people there know that he is from Mahatma Gandhi’s country, where democracy and the rule of the ballot have been “kept alive by the Congress”. The Congress leader was addressing an event here to mark the formation of new districts in the state.
“The prime minister is under the illusion that he is the prime minister of the BJP. His behaviour, speech and body language are as if he is the prime minister of a party, he is the prime minister of Hindus only,” the chief minister said. “This is a very dangerous thing,” he added. He said Modi has been elected in a democracy in which the Congress had maintained the rule of the ballot.
“Why does Modi consider himself as the prime minister of the BJP and Hindus?” he said. It is said Modi has become a big world leader, Gehlot told the gathering. He then asked people to find out what the world thinks about the violence in Manipur. He objected to Modi mentioning the Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh while commenting on the video that showed two Manipur women being paraded naked by a mob.
Gehlot called the comparison an “insult”. Modi had condemned crime against women, mentioning BJP-run Manipur and the two other states in the same breath. Gehlot said the answer to violence cannot be violence.
“Do Modi's party and the RSS people understand this? Tagore, whom they believe in, had said that humanity is greater than nationality. If there is no love, where will the nation be,” the CM asked. Gehlot again claimed that Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and his family members are involved in the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam -- an allegation over which he is facing a defamation case in a Delhi court.
The CM was scheduled to appear Friday in that court through video conferencing. He said he cancelled his trip to one of the new districts because of the court hearing.
