“Our PM comments without knowing things sometimes”

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal took a dig at India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that Ram Mandir will be built “when Lord Rama wants it and Modi will not build the temple”. “We believe in the Lord, we don’t believe in you (Modiji). You are not going to build that temple.If you think that you are, then you are mistaken,” added Kapil Sibal. “It’s when God wants it. When Lord Ram wants it the temple will be built wherever, whenever. And that the court will decide,” Sibal added. Sibal had in the apex court said that the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute should be heard after the 2019 general elections, which triggered a major political storm.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress and congratulated the Sunni Waqf Board for distancing itself from Sibal’s plea. However, Sibal clarified that he did not represent the Sunni Waqf Board, but one of the individuals in the case. “Our PM comments without knowing things sometimes. Amit Shah and the Prime Minister said I represented Sunni Waqf Board. I was never a Sunni Waqf Board lawyer. I can understand your President  Amit Shah is saying such a thing because I don’t expect anything better from him.  “The PM did not check the fact that actually I never represented the Sunni Waqf Board in the Supreme Court and yet he thanked them. I request the PM to be a little more careful before making such public comments. It doesn’t behove the status of a Prime Minister.”

“People have made up their mind to vote out BJP,” Hardik Patel

In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly poll campaign, if there is one crowd puller, it’s not Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. It’s 24-year-old Hardik Patel, spearheading the Patidar quota agitation under the banner of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS). Mr. Patel is in the thick of things, traversing the State, crisscrossing one district after another, holding road shows, rallies and meetings targeting the BJP.  Addressing a rally, Hardik Patel said, “The BJP has lost the plot and may level allegations but the fact is the people are coming to our rallies everywhere. Not only in Patidar pockets, even in tribal pockets, people are coming because they are fed up with the BJP rule. And so far as funding is concerned, I have repeatedly said the ruling party has a ₹5,000-crore budget for this poll. I said earlier that a ₹1,200 crore offer was made but I rejected it and instead decided to fight for my community and the people of Gujarat.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again lambasted the Congress for linking Ayodhya temple issue with elections and congratulated the Sunni Wakf Board for taking a nationalistic stand on the issue.

Addressing election rallies at Dhandhuka, near Ahmedabad, and the tribal-dominated Dahod and Netrang towns  Prime Minister Modi expressed his strong displeasure over Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi calling him and his government “friend of rich industrialists”. Referring to Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal’s plea in the Supreme Court to defer hearing on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue till the 2019 parliamentary elections as he appeared on behalf of the Sunni Wakf Board, Modi said, “I congratulate the Sunni Wakf Board. They have done a great job. They have taken a stand for the unity of the country.”

His reference was to the statement made by Haji Mehboob from the Sunni Wakf Board distancing the board from Sibal’s request to the Supreme Court to defer the case till July 2019. Mehboob said while Sibal was the lawyer for the board “he is also related to a political party”. He also stated that Sibal’s statement in the apex court was wrong and that the board wanted a solution to the issue at the earliest.

Modi, however, was not ready to accept the Congress’ plea that demand for deferring the hearing on the Ayodhya temple issue was Sibal’s personal stand and that the Congress did not share that. “Is the Wakf Board contesting elections? Is the election not a matter of interest for the Congress that would participate in it?”

Attacking the Congress for not keeping interests of the nation in mind, Modi said it was highly improper for the Congress to link temple issue with elections.

Ridiculing Rahul Gandhi for criticising him for allegedly “working for a handful of industrialist friends”, Modi enumerated various pro-poor programmes initiated by his government both as the Gujarat CM and now as the PM, and asked if a government that launched the drive for education for girl child, power supply to the poor village households, separate ministry and budget for tribal welfare and such other schemes could be classified as a “pro-rich”.