After a month & a few days, India will elect the new Prime Minister of the country as the counting for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will take place on June 4, 2024. As a result, political parties and candidates have intensified their campaigns for the 2024 General Elections. It means social media are flooded with videos with candidates' allegations, and counter allegations against rival parties. However, what sparked outrage on social media as well as among the INDIA alliance leaders was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of distributing common people's wealth to religious minorities specially Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Banswara said, "This 'urban Naxal' mindset, mothers and sisters, they will not even leave your 'mangalsutra'. They can go to that level... The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, get information about it, and then distribute that property. They will distribute it to whom - Manmohan Singh's government had said Muslims have the first right on the country's assets..Earlier, when their (Congress) government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right on the country's assets. This means to whom will this property be distributed? It will be distributed among those who have more children. It will be distributed to the infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money go to the infiltrators? Do you approve of this?"
This sparked a massive row on the political front with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge requesting time from PM Modi to meet him and explain the Congress' Lok Sabha Elections 2024 manifesto that the Grand Old Party will not distribute wealth to religious minorities.
Kharge wrote a letter to PM Modi in which he said, "Your ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ works for the corporates whose taxes you reduced, while the salaried class pays higher taxes. The poor pay GST even on food and salt and rich corporate claim GST refunds. That is why when we talk of inequality between rich and poor, you are purposely equating it with Hindu and Muslim. Our manifesto is for the people of India whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, or Buddhist. I think you have still not forgotten your pre-independence allies, the Muslim League and Colonial Masters."
Did Congress' Lok Sabha Nyay Patra promise wealth to Muslims & religious minorities?
True Scoop News tried to verify the claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and found out to be false. In page number 7 of the Nyay Patra, Congress says, "The plurality of religions represents the history ofIndia. History cannot be altered. All people living in India and all children born in India are equally entitled to enjoy human rights that includes the right to practise one’s religion. Pluralism and
diversity constitute the ethos of India and are enshrined in the Preamble to the Constitution of India. Given the history and the democratic traditions of India, the Congress believes that there is no place for authoritarianism or majoritarianism. Linguistic and religious minorities are granted human and civic rights under the Constitution of India. Congress pledges to uphold and protect these rights."
Notably, at no point, Congress' Lok Sabha manifesto say that it would distribute wealth among religious minorities specifically among Muslims.
On page number 6 of the Nyay Patra, Congress indeed talked about doing a survey and accordingly formulating a plan to curb economic disparity. "Congress has been the most vocal and active champion of the progress of the backward and oppressed classes and castes over the last seven decades. However, caste discrimination is still a reality. The people belonging to the SC, ST
and OBC communities have not yet been able to catch up with the rest and are still left behind. While OBC, SC and ST constitute nearly 70 per cent of India’s population, their representation in high-ranking professions, services and businesses is disproportionately low. No progressive modern society should tolerate such inequality or discrimination based on ancestry and the consequent denial of equal opportunity. Congress will bridge historical inequities by implementing the following programme."
Congress then shared 23 points on how it is planning to achieve this.
Is PM Modi's claim totally false?
PM Modi and multiple BJP leaders have given the example of Karnataka where the Congress government has added Muslims to OBCs. The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) recently confirmed citing the data from Karnataka government, all castes and communities of Muslims of Karnataka have been included in the list of other backward classes for granting reservation in employment and educational institutions under the state government. As per the 2011 Census data, Karnataka has a Muslim population of 12.92 per cent. "Under category II-B, all Muslims of Karnataka state have been considered as OBC," the NCBC said. The commission said that in category-1, 17 Muslim communities have been considered as OBC whereas 19 Muslim communities have been considered as OBCs in category-2A.