Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Congress and canvassed votes at a rally in agriculture-dominated Haryana but spoke not a word on the farmers' protest, staying true to his penchant for silence on thorny subjects.
He started off with a pitch for a landslide victory in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, chanting "Abki baar, NDA sarkar 400 paar (This time, an NDA government with 400+ seats)".
Modi was addressing the rally in Rewari near Delhi's borders while protesting farmers, intent on marching to the national capital, had been stopped at the Punjab-Haryana border with tear gas shells dropped from drones.
Farmers — mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh — are demanding a legally guaranteed minimum price for all their crops. They have accused the Modi government of failing to honour a promise for such a law, made purportedly when a yearlong farmer agitation on Delhi’s borders in 2020-21 had forced the withdrawal of three central agricultural laws.
At the rally, Modi recalled that he had begun his 2014 Lok Sabha campaign with a meeting in Rewari and that the country’s voters had then blessed him with more seats than the required 272.
“Now people are saying, ‘Abki baar…’,” Modi said, as the crowd responded and completed the slogan.
A cursory mention of the farming community came at the fag end of his speech when he offered a "Modi's guarantee" to help small and marginal farmers with the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi dole of Rs 6,000 a year.
His focus seemed to be on Congress-bashing, and he castigated the party for "dynastic politics" and accused it of opposing the construction of the Ram temple and the abrogation of Article 370.
“Those who used to call Lord Ram an imaginary figure and did not want a temple built in Ayodhya, too, are chanting 'Jai Siya Ram'," Modi said.
He said the Congress was devoted to the welfare of one family instead of the entire nation. "For decades, the Congress placed obstacles in the path of the abrogation of Article 370…. I gave the guarantee and did it,” he said.
“Now people are saying that the party that removed (Article) 370 will be blessed with 370 seats. While the BJP will get 370 seats, the NDA government will cross 400.”
Modi claimed the Congress faced an exodus of competent politicians who realised what the future held for the family-driven party.
"Congress leaders can’t even handle a startup and they think of handling the country. All their leaders are leaving the party one by one.... In contrast to the Congress's years of misrule, we have the BJP's good governance," Modi told the rally.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had inaugurated or laid the foundations for multiple development projects in Rewari.
