Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday recalled Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's 'boys will be boys' remark and slammed the party over law and order when it was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Addressing a women's conference in his Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, Modi claimed that there was "jungle raj" during the Samajwadi Party rule in Uttar Pradesh and women found it difficult to step out of their homes.
The "SP people" used to shamelessly say boys make mistakes, Modi said in an apparent reference to Yadav's controversial remark made a decade back while opposing capital punishment for rape. Boys will be boys, they make "mistakes", the SP founder had then said. "Let SP's boys make a mistake now," Modi dared, saying that the Yogi Adityanath government will deal with them in a manner that they would not have imagined.
The prime minister also said that the Congress and Samajwadi Party have always neglected the welfare of women but under the BJP government, women are at the centre of the country's success story. Terming the INDIA bloc members "anti-women", Modi said had the Congress been in power, kitchen expenses in every household would have gone up two to three times.
He said the BJP government has helped them improve their lives with the help of various schemes. In the past 10 years, women have been at the centre of the government's policies, the prime minister added. "There might not have been many discussions on the topic, but this is a big factor in the country's success story," he said.
Modi said the Congress' rule is mentioned in the popular Hindi movie song "Mehngai dayain khaye jaat hai". He said the "Surya Ghar Yojana" is helping save Rs 2,000-2,500 a month. "The scheme would be expanded after the formation of a new government after June 4," Modi added.
The prime minister said that despite opposition criticism, his government has constructed 11 crore toilets. Under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, more than four crore houses have been built and registered in the name of women, he said. Modi said while he remains busy with campaigning for his party, he feels confident about Varanasi "because people themselves take care of the seat".
He also exhorted women to go to polling booths in groups of 25-30 "with dhol-nagare" to cast their votes. Voting in the Varanasi seat will take place in the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha election on June 1. Modi is seeking a third term from the seat.
