Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday invoked Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar and slammed the Congress for opposing the contentious Waqf Amendment Act, asking why the Opposition party was not appointing a Muslim as its president or fielding 50 per cent candidates from the community if it cared so much about Muslims.
Modi, whose party does not have a single Muslim parliamentarian, was addressing a rally in Haryana’s Hisar. He sought to project himself as the true carrier of Ambedkar’s legacy and accused the Congress of using the “sacred Constitution as a tool only to grab power” and appease Muslim fundamentalists.
The rally coincided with the birth anniversary celebrations of Ambedkar that saw the BJP go all out to embrace the Dalit icon, haunted by the electoral reverses the party suffered in the last general election due to the Constitution-change narrative.
Modi started his address by claiming that Ambedkar’s struggles inspired his government and that “each day, each decision and each policy” of his government was dedicated to Ambedkar.
“I want to ask these vote-bank-hungry leaders — if you care about Muslims, why doesn’t the Congress make a Muslim its party president? Give 50 per cent tickets in elections to Muslims. But no, they won’t give Muslims anything in the Congress. They will snatch the rights of citizens,” Modi said.
Modi, who had not participated in the debate and the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, accused the Congress of turning Ambedkar’s Constitution on its head by bringing arbitrary changes in the 1995 Waqf Act to please the “fundamentalist Muslims”.
The strong defence of the new Waqf Act came in the backdrop of violence in Bengal against the sweeping changes in the law governing waqf properties, but Modi did not make any reference to it in his address and focused on pouring scorn on the
Congress.
He accused the Congress of spreading the “virus of vote-bank politics” and violating Ambedkar’s Constitution by opposing the Waqf Act and providing reservation on religious grounds in Karnataka to Muslims.
“The Constitution talks about a secular civil code, but the Congress never implemented it. Today, a uniform civil code has been implemented in Uttarakhand. The Congress unfortunately is opposing this,” he said.
Modi said the waqf law during the Congress allowed the land mafia to control lakhs of hectares of waqf properties and through the changes in the law, his government would ensure social justice.
“If waqf properties had been used honestly, Muslim youths wouldn’t need to earn a livelihood from repairing bicycle punctures. But only the land mafia benefitted from these properties. This mafia was looting lands belonging to Dalits, backwards and widows,” he said, claiming that the amended law would stop the loot.
Referring to the Karnataka government’s decision to grant reservation to Muslims in civil work contracts, he slammed the Congress for “trampling” the Constitution. “...This is when Babasaheb’s Constitution rules out reservation based on religion,”
he said.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge countered Modi’s attack, accusing his government of making only tall claims while doing very little. “The Modi government takes the name of Ambedkar but is not ready to fulfil his aspiration. They (BJP) only pay lip service,” he said on X, demanding a caste census to ensure social justice as envisioned by the Dalit icon.