New Delhi: How can different laws exist for different members of a family, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Bhopal Tuesday, endorsing the need for the Uniform Civil Code in India.
“People are instigating others in the name of the Uniform Civil Code… How can the country run with such different laws for different people,” Modi said, adding that the Constitution also talked about equal rights for India’s citizens.
The Prime Minister said those who accused the BJP (of discrimination), never thought of the interests of Muslims. “If they did, then my Muslim brothers and sisters wouldn’t have fallen behind in education and employment, in the standard of living,” Modi told workers gathered under the BJP’s “Mera Booth, Sabse Mazboot” programme.
“The lives of Pasmanda Muslims (an identity that integrates Dalit and the backward caste which make up 80% of the community) have been made difficult by those who do vote-bank politics in the country. They are not treated equally. They have been exploited by members of their own community,” Modi added.
He said the Supreme Court has also urged the government to bring the Uniform Civil Code, but it was being opposed by people “who are hungry for votes”. “In vote bank politics, nomadic tribes were deprived of government schemes. In the last nine years, we took notice of every single family and every small group,” Modi said.
He also attacked those supporting “Triple Talaq”, saying: “These people are doing grave injustice to Muslim daughters. If this was an important aspect of Islam, why is it not there in Pakistan, Indonesia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria and Bangladesh?” he asked. He further said that Egypt had “removed” the practice “80 to 90 years ago”.
The Prime Minister added that some people wanted the “licence to discriminate against Muslim women through the noose of the Triple Talaq noose”.
On his government’s work, Modi said India was developing fast and that the inflation rate was under control. “In spite of Covid, in spite of the war (Russia-Ukraine), we in India have not allowed inflation to spiral out,” he said.
He also attacked last week’s Opposition meeting in Patna, saying “the corrupt had joined hands… to escape the anti-scam crackdown. These corrupt leaders are trying to save each other. Their history shows that all of them together have been involved in scams worth over Rs 20 lakh crore… I promise not to spare any of them… I will take every scamster to task,” Modi added.
He also said that leaders who would usually curse and abuse each other were now touching each other’s feet, “such is the level of their restlessness”. He said the Opposition’s anxiety was “making it evident that the people had decided to bring BJP back to power in 2024”.
“A massive victory for the BJP is certain in 2024,” the Prime Minister virtually told one lakh booth-level workers, adding that his party believed the path to welfare was not in appeasement (politics) but in gratification.
Earlier in the day, Modi flagged off five Vande Bharat trains in Bhopal, two for Madhya Pradesh which goes to polls later this year.
Modi inaugurated the trains – five in one day for the first time – from Bhopal’s Rani Kamalapati railway station.
These semi high-speed trains will run between Bhopal-Jabalpur, Khajuraho-Bhopal-Indore, Madgaon (Goa)-Mumbai, Dharwad-Bengaluru and Hatia-Patna.
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