PM Modi's rare attack on media: Dare you to show MM Singh video on priority to Muslims

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took rare public swipes at a section of the media for challenging his previous remarks about predecessor Manmohan Singh advocating priority for Muslims in the national resource pie.

Referring to a new video of Singh, dated eve of the 15th General Election in April 2009, Modi said Singh is again heard reiterating his previous remarks that Muslims have the first claim on the resources of the country.  

"When I exposed the Congress and discriminatory approach of the INDI bloc, some people were infuriated. Their whole ecosystem began targeting me. Today I dare them all to stop trying to scare me because for 25 years they could not scare me. These people went to the extent of spreading the lie that MM Singh never advocated that the first claim on national resources is of the Muslims. 

Today one more old video of MM Singh has surfaced wherein he is heard reiterating that the first claim on national resources is that of the Muslims," Modi said.

Citing the video, Modi, in a rare public attack on mainstream media, dared it to show the evidence to the country.

"After this video's revelation, the Congress and its ecosystem is silent. The media which was calling my previous statement about the issue wrong is also silent. I watched these media people the other night. I do not wish to criticise them personally but I was watching how without fact checks they were out to gun for Modi. Today the video evidence is out. I urge the media to show this video to the country. But I know they will not do so because such is their ecosystem. They will shut this video into a box by the evening," the Prime Minister said in West Bengal.

In an April 2009 video posted by the BJP and several handles sympathetic to the saffron forces shows Singh saying: "I said minorities, particularly Muslim minorities, if they are poor they have prior claim on resources of the country. I used the words all for all minorities and I added particularly Muslim minorities, if they are poor, they have the first priority on resources of the country. I stand by my statement."

PM Modi and the ruling BJP have whipped up a whole campaign narrative accusing the Congress-led INDI bloc of trying to "snatch the constitutionally mandated reservation rights of SCs, STs and OBCs and give these to Muslims" and of "ploys to redistribute wealth of Indian masses by launching surveys and subsequent policy action."

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