"Disrespect Ambedkar But Roam Around With His Photo": Amit Shah Jabs Congress

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Congress follows "4Cs, namely corruption, commission, communalism and criminalisation" and said the party disrespected eminent jurist and social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Addressing a rally in Karera area in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, where elections will be held on November 17, Mr Shah said the Congress will stop welfare schemes if it came to power.

"The Congress follows 4Cs, namely corruption, commission, communal riots, and criminalisation. The Congress disrespected Babasaheb Ambedkar but roams around carrying his photograph. The Congress did not give him Bharat Ratna and always conspired to ensure he never reached Parliament," Mr Shah claimed.

"Our government came to power and we bestowed Bharat Ratna on Babasaheb Ambedkar (in 1990 when a non-Congress National Front government also including the BJP under VP Singh was in place)," Mr Shah claimed.

Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Shah said surgical strikes were carried out in September 2016 on terror camps in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to avenge the Uri attack in which 19 soldiers lost their lives.

Mr Shah said the Congress-led UPA government under Dr Manmohan Singh used to remain mum in the face of such attacks but the Modi dispensation carried out air and surgical strikes to hit back at terror.

Attacking MP Congress chief Kamal Nath, Mr Shah said the former would not become CM after the Assembly polls.

"And if he becomes CM, then the BJP government's Ladli Behna Yojana (in which women get Rs 1,250 per month as aid) and welfare schemes meant for farmers will be stopped," he claimed.

In 2002 (after almost a decade of Congress rule), the budget outlay of the state was Rs 23,000 crore, while it is now Rs 3.18 lakh crore, he said.

The BJP has been in power in MP since 2003, except for the period between December 2018 and March 2020 when Nath was CM of a Congress-led coalition.

Mr Shah said previous Congress governments had made MP a "BIMARU" state, while the BJP brought about development by working for farmers, Dalits, tribals, OBCs, women and youth.

MP Assembly poll results will be declared on December 3.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)