New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has hit out sharply at Prime Minister Modi’s “bulldozer” reference. Kharge said it is not the Congress but the BJP who deploys bulldozers.
“It is the BJP that uses the bulldozer. We have never run a bulldozer on anyone till date,” Kharge said.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Mumbai on May 18, Saturday, the Congress president said, “The Election Commission should take action against Modi ji and the BJP for saying such things about the temple of God which is currently under construction by the trust. By saying such things, they are creating anger among the public. They are inciting the public, they are instigating them.”
बुलडोजर तो भाजपा चलाती है। हमने किसी पर आज तक बुलडोजर नहीं चलाया। जो भगवान् का मंदिर अभी ट्रस्ट की ओर से बनने में है, उसपर ऐसी बात बोलने के लिए चुनाव आयोग को मोदी जी और भाजपा पर कार्रवाई करनी चाहिए। ऐसी बातें करके वो जनता में एक रोष पैदा करने का काम कर रहें हैं। जनता को भड़का रहे… pic.twitter.com/ksvXGzboPT
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) May 18, 2024
Modi, in a public rally on May 17 in UP’s Barabanki, alleged that if the Samajwadi Party and Congress assume office, they will use a bulldozer to break the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Modi further asked both the parties to take “tuition” from Adityanath on how and where to use bulldozers.
Taking up the issue with the Election Commission, Kharge hit back, saying that the poll body should take strict action against Prime Minister Modi over the ‘bulldozer’ comment.
He said, “The prime minister himself is giving initiative speeches, action should be taken against him. If some small leader had done this, we would not have paid attention, but the person sitting on the post of prime minister is speaking such language. Modi ji is inciting people by saying that things are impossible and we cannot do them. The people of the country know that this will never happen. After our government comes, everything will be protected. This is what our constitution says, we will work under the constitution only.”
Former home and finance minister in the UPA, P. Chidambaram also weighed in, hitting out at Modi’s ‘bulldozer’ reference. He said, “Bulldozer justice may be the signature tune of the chief minister of UP, but it is anathema to the Congress and the INDIA bloc.”
He added that the Congress’s manifesto has the following promise on page 22, point 16: “We promise to put an end to the weaponisation of laws, arbitrary searches, seizures and attachments, arbitrary and indiscriminate arrests, third-degree methods, prolonged custody, custodial deaths, and bulldozer justice.”
Modi tried to spin Ayodhya’s Ram temple to invoke fear earlier in a speech on May 7 in Madhya Pradesh, alleging a “Babri lock” that would be put on the temple, if the INDIA bloc came to power. Modi based his charge on a recent defector Pramod Krishnam, who was expelled from the Congress for six years in February, making allegations against the Congress for allegedly wanting to ‘overturn’ the Ayodhya court verdict in an interview to ANI on May 6.
Modi though surprisingly, also denied he had ever spoken of the ‘Babri lock’.
‘Bulldozer’ Adityanath
Last year, the Citizens & Lawyers Initiative, a private group of lawyers and citizens, brought out a report titled Routes of Wrath, Weaponsing Religious Processions, in the context of various Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti processions that were taken out in April 2022, resulting in bulldozer actions by several BJP state governments, mostly Adityanath’s state government in UP. The Wire has reported on how UP’s Adityanath government perfected ‘bulldozer’ as a “new weapon against Muslims.”
Modi’s invocation of UP chief minister Adityanath has been a theme of late in the prime minister’s campaign speeches, especially after his usual solo election hoardings in the state were replaced with those having Adityanath’s images too.
The Wire has reported on how anxiety amongst an influential and dominant community in UP, that Modi-Shah, if voted back to power, will work to replace the chief minister have gathered ground. The top leadership has gone out of the way to try and dispel that sentiment.