Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal, in an exclusive interview to Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, flayed Congress’ manifesto and said the party is still thinking of appeasement and following on the economic path shown by Sam Pitroda.
“For them (Congress), the politics of discrimination still takes priority. And the kind of confusion they tried to create in society, we felt it necessary to present it properly before the people. And I think we have not stopped talking about development and a positive agenda,” Goyal told CNN-News18.
Sam Pitroda, who resigned from the post of Indian Overseas Congress chairman after his controversial remarks on India’s ethnicities, had a few weeks ago raised the issue of inheritance law and backed it, citing the example of the US. His statement created a political slugfest, and the Congress distanced itself from his remarks.
When asked why the BJP raked up the issue of Hindu-Muslim during the campaign in Rajasthan, Goyal clarified that his party did not start the discussion. “We have kept a vision of how we can become a developed India in this Amrit Kaal, and what steps will be taken in that direction in our third term.”
He further said in all the speeches, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and defence minister Rajnath Singh and even other candidates have approached the people with a “positive attitude and promoted a positive narrative”.
On the INDIA bloc’s “five prime ministers” plank, Goyal said the Opposition has not been able to decide who will those be. He stressed, “This election will decide whether Modi ji becomes the prime minister or on the other side (it) is a question mark. Because even though they have said that they will appoint five prime ministers in five years, they have not been able to say who those five will be, and who will be the first.”
PM Modi in an election rally in Kolhapur in Maharashtra a couple of weeks ago said the opposition has chalked out a plan of having five prime ministers in five years if it is voted to power and then mint money. He also said the INDIA bloc was planning to “change” the Constitution if it came to power and ensure religion-based reservation.
When asked why the PM thinks that the Congress’ manifesto has an imprint of the Muslim League, Goyal said, “If you look at the entire history of Congress, they have discriminated on the basis of language, state, religion, and even on the basis of skin colour. They have divided people even through their schemes. What was the Sachar Committee? They asked people in every state what specific policies or schemes they had for Muslims. It is so unfortunate. So, if we build any infrastructure for roads or railways, will we have to decide how much reservation to give Muslims to use that road?”
Sachar Committee was set up in 2005 by former prime minister Manmohan Singh to bring the issue of Indian Muslims to national attention.
Goyal said the Congress has pitched for reservation for Muslims in Karnataka this election. “These things were said by the Muslim League. Their actions and their words, in their manifesto, and their work in the few states that they have, looking at that and how they are constantly insulting Lord Shri Ram, boycotting the ‘pran pratishtha’ at the Ram temple, questioning the very existence of Shri Ram, some Congress leader saying they will have to purify the Ram temple; when all these statements come and are seen in this context that these people are asserting that one community should have the first right to the country’s resources, then you can judge that they are talking like the Muslim League,” the minister said.
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