2 min readBhopalSep 6, 2023 03:13 AM IST
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the people of Madhya Pradesh have to choose between two ideologies — “minority appeasement or uplift of tribals” — as he attacked the opposition Congress in the poll-bound state.
Shah was speaking at the inauguration of Jan Ashirwad yatras in the tribal-dominated Mandla belt in the Mahakaushal region of Madhya Pradesh. The massive outreach programme of the BJP is expected to cover over 10,000 kms and culminate in Bhopal later this month where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the event. Unlike the previous yatras, this time the BJP has been carrying out the yatras under the collective leadership of Union ministers instead of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spearheading them.
Shah said the country has to decide between the ideology of the Congress, which says “the minorities have the first right over the wealth of the country”, and the BJP, which says “the first right lies with the tribals and poor sections of society”.
Shah said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his tenure said that “the minorities have the first right over the coffers of the country; everyone opposed him, but he did not listen”. “The Congress did minority appeasement. In 2014, (Narendra) Modi government came… He said his government was for the tribals, Dalits, the backward classes, and the poor. You have to decide between these two ideologies.”
Manmohan Singh’s statement in 2006 at the National Development Council had been met with strong opposition from the BJP. The PMO at the time had clarified that Singh’s comments had been “quoted out of context in some sections of the electronic media, fuelling a baseless controversy”. The PMO said that Singh’s reference to “first claim on resources referred to all the priority areas listed above, including programmes for the uplift of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities”.
Shah said “the Congress did not promote any tribal leader, while Modi made a poor, tribal family’s sister, Droupadi Murmu, the President”. Praising Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Shah said he had fulfilled the announcements he made in the past two years for the tribals of the state.
