Bokaro (Jharkhand):

The Congress and its allies want to divide the OBC community by pitting sub-castes against each other for political gains, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged today. Addressing an election rally in Jharkhand’s Bokaro, he used the slogan: “Ek rahenge toh safe rahenge”. The slogan, which means “we will be safe if we are united”, appealed to the backward castes to stay united.

The Congress, the Prime Minister said, has not been able to cross the 250 mark in Lok Sabha polls after the OBC community got reservation in the 90s. “So the Congress wants to break the OBC community and divide them into numerous castes,” the Prime Minister alleged.

The unity of castes under the OBC umbrella, he said, has made the country stronger. “But the Congress and JMM want to make them fight among themselves. They want that castes in OBC category stop considering themselves OBC and remain entangled in their own castes. I want to ask you, do you want the OBC community to disintegrate? Won’t your voice become weaker if you break? We have to remember, ‘ek rahenge toh safe rahenge’,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister said many youths from Jharkhand are in the Army. “We lost many jawans due to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. A big reason was the wall of Article 370. Modi has buried that wall for ever. But the Congress and its allies don’t like this. You may not know this. The country became Independent, got a Constitution, but for seven decades, BR Ambedkar’s Constitution was not implemented, Dalits and Adivasis did not get reservation there. Modi has demolished the Article 370 wall and took BR Ambedkar’s Constitution there. You must have seen, elections took place and for the first time, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister took oath on Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution. This is Modi’s tribute to Babasaheb Ambedkar,” he said.

Referring to the uproar in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly over a resolution to restore special status under Article 370, the Prime Minister said, “As soon as they formed the government, Congress and its allies have started playing their games, they passed a resolution to bring Article 370 back. JMM is also supporting them. They want to remove BR Ambedkar’s Constitution from Jammu and Kashmir again. They want to deprive Dalits, backward classes and Adivasis. They want to throw our soldiers into the fire of terror. I want to ask you, do you accept this sin by the Congress?”

The Prime Minister said the BJP would stop infiltration into the state. He said Jharkhand needs an NDA government to ensure the safety of its daughters and land owned by people. “We have to build a Jharkhand that is counted among the most prosperous in the country. I have come to seek your help and blessings. You have to make candidates of BJP, AJSU, LJP and JDU win,” he said.

The Prime Minister accused the ruling JMM and Congress of creating a “paper leak mafia” and a “recruitment mafia”. “We will strike all those involved. We will dig them out of the underworld and send them to jail,” he said. Leaks of question papers of job exams in Jharkhand is a key talking point in this election and BJP’s chosen line of attack against the JMM-Congress government.

The Prime Minister said that between 2004 and 2014, when the Congress was in power at the Centre, Jharkhand got a financial assistance of Rs 80,000 crore. “Madam Sonia ji ran the government and Manmohan Singh was made the Prime Minister. After 2014, the government in Delhi changed, you gave this sevak an opportunity to serve. In the past 10 years, we gave more than 3 lakh crore rupees to Jharkhand. Isn’t this four-fold, don’t we love you four-fold,” he said.

Jharkhand is set to vote in two phases — on November 13 and 20. Votes will be counted on November 23.