New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that disintegration is afflicting the Congress and the opposition bloc INDIA as they are unable to keep their flock together.
He made the remarks in an interview at the News9 Global Summit soon after the BJP inflicted a stunning loss on the Congress in Himachal Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha election due to cross-voting by several MLAs of the state's governing party.
Shah also underlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's commitment to "one nation one election" and said the committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind will soon submit its report on the issue. The home minister is a member of the committee.
Asked about the roll-out of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand and whether it will be implemented across the country, he called it a big social reform but added a comprehensive discussion should take place before its nationwide implementation.
Social, judicial and constitutional scrutiny of the measure in the hilly state should also take place, he said. Shah ridiculed as "childish" Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's claim that five to six MLAs of his party were "kidnapped and whisked away" by the CRPF and the Haryana Police.
Voting for the lone Rajya Sabha seat happened inside the assembly in full view of cameras, polling agents and contesting candidates, Shah said, wondering if it is possible to kidnap MLAs from inside the House. "It is a childish talk," he said and took a swipe at the Congress by noting that its votes and MLAs left the party but it had little idea.
"I can't understand how these people practice politics," he said, downplaying his party's role in the cross-voting. "They (opposition) are unable to keep their flock together and that is why they are disintegrating," Shah said.
Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Union government, including on the OBC issue, he said nobody in the country takes him seriously except the media and added that the opposition party inflict maximum injustice on Other Backward Classes.
The home minister the INDIA bloc is an alliance of seven power-hungry parties, and it will unravel as soon as the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are declared.
Its leaders will start saying "had Rahul Gandhi been not the leader, then they would have won," he said. The INDIA bloc in reality never existed and is a media creation, he said, adding that all their leaders want is that their children become prime minister and chief ministers.
Shah said his party will welcome anyone to its fold who agrees with its ideology and added that criminal charges against no leader have been withdrawn after they joined his party.
The opposition has accused the BJP of using criminal probes for political purposes and putting investigation against those who join it on the back burner. The home minister said only about five per cent of seizures by the Enforcement Directorate relate to political parties and politicians. "It is a campaign against black money and corruption," he said and cited the recovery of huge hauls of cash from some opposition leaders.
The BJP, he said, is working with the aim of ensuring the ruling alliance's win in over 400 seats in Lok Sabha and lauded Modi for his transformative decisions. "Since 2014, PM Modi has taken some bold and decisive steps. We never took decisions which were populist, we took pro-people decisions," he said.
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