PM Modi tears into Rahul over ‘fighting against shakti’ remark

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 18

PM Narendra Modi on Monday took veiled jibes at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the latter’s ‘shakti’ remark made in Mumbai on Sunday and said the 18th Lok Sabha election was a fight between forces that wanted to destroy ‘shakti’ and those that worshipped them.

Declaring that he could lay down his life to protect ‘shakti’ — the combined prowess of India’s mothers, daughters and sisters — the PM at his rallies in Telangana (Jagtial) and Karnataka (Shivamogga) attacked Gandhi who had yesterday said “we are fighting a shakti.” “In Hindu dharma, there is a word ‘shakti’. We are fighting against a ‘shakti’ (power). The question arises as to what is that ‘shakti’,” Rahul had said in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park during the rally to conclude his Bharat Jodo yatra.

Diverting attention

The PM is just a master of diverting public attention by twisting the statements of opposition leaders. —Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Cong Gen Secy

PM upset

The PM is upset and the entire BJP is talking baseless things after Rahul Gandhi attacked ‘Asuri Shakti’. —Pawan Khera, Cong leader

The PM today slammed Gandhi, saying he would not let INDIA bloc partners destroy ‘shakti’. “The country dedicated the success of Chandrayaan-3 last year to ‘Shiv Shakti’ but the INDIA bloc is speaking of destroying ‘shakti’. On Sunday in Mumbai, there was an INDIA bloc rally after the announcement of the schedule for elections. In Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, they said their fight was against ‘shakti’. For me, every mother, every daughter is a form of ‘shakti’. Mothers and sisters, I worship you as ‘shakti’. INDIA bloc in its manifesto announced to finish/destroy ‘shakti’. I accept their challenge. I will sacrifice my life for the security of mothers and sisters,” Modi said in Telangana, repeating his attack in Karnataka.

Rahul said he was not speaking of ‘shakti’ in religious terms. “Modi ji does not like my words, he always tries to change their meaning by twisting them in some way or the other because he knows that I have spoken a solemn truth,” he stated on X, adding that the ‘shakti’ (power) he mentioned “is a mask of power, a power that has captured India’s voice, India’s institutions..and the entire constitutional structure of India. “Using the same ‘shakti’ (power), PM Narendra Modi waives loans worth thousands of crores of Indian banks, while an Indian farmer dies by suicide when he is unable to repay a loan of a few thousand rupees,” Gandhi posted on X.

He added, “I recognise that power and so does Narendra Modi ji. It is not any kind of religious power, it is the power of unrighteousness, corruption and falsehood.”

Meanwhile, Modi told the gathering in Jagtial that they could converse with him in Telugu and also teach him the language. “Please go to your cell phones and follow Modi in Telugu to speak to me in Telugu. If anyone asks you, you can tell them that Modi is in your pockets by following my Telugu handle.” The PM also urged Telangana people to correct him where he is wrong as he attempts to learn the language.

Opposition talks of destroying shakti: PM

The nation dedicated the success of Chandrayaan-3 to ‘Shiv Shakti’ but the opposition parties are talking about destroying shakti, says the PM.

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#Congress #Lok Sabha #Mumbai #Narendra Modi #Rahul Gandhi