Lakhimpur Kheri/Sikar, April 14 (IANS): The Congress is continuously disrespecting and insulting B.R. Ambedkar, one of the key architects of India's Constitution, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said Monday.
Addressing an election rally on Ambedkar Jayanti at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader also accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi of choking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"It is unfortunate that (Congress vice president) Rahul Gandhi does not know anything about the country's history and tradition," Modi said. "He cannot look beyond his own family."
"Babasaheb Ambedkarji gave us so much but due to the (Gandhi) family politics, Shehzadeji, you all never let what he envisioned to become a reality," Modi said, addressing Rahul Gandhi the way he usually does.
"In our country, three members of the same family received Bharat Ratna. The Congress never gave Bharat Ratna to Ambedkar. This happened only when the BJP came to power."
Modi also alleged that Sonia Gandhi did not give enough freedom to Manmohan Singh.
At another rally in Laxmangarh in Sikar district of Rajasthan, he said: "The constitution has given us a lot of rights, including the right to speak. But can Madam Sonia tell us who has taken away the right of our prime minister to speak."
"If the rights given to us by the constitution had been implemented properly, then the country would not have been in such a bad state," he said.
He again said Rahul Gandhi was disrespecting Ambedkar.
"Day and night, shehzada is insulting Ambedkar. Wherever he (Rahul Gandhi) goes, he talks about giving different rights and acts. Isn't it an insult to Ambedkar?"
He said there will be a change in the government in Delhi.
"Time has come to finish the kind of politics we have seen in the last 60 years, the politics of division. Now the country needs unity, peace and brotherhood, only this will take the country forward," he said.
"Whenever I try to talk about giving employment to youth, they talk about secularism, I talk about women's safety and they talk about secularism," he said.
"The Congress is afraid that after May 16 it will have to give an account of the money it has looted."
He said late prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had coined the slogan "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" (Hail soldiers, farmers), but the Congress has turned it into "Maar Jawan Maar Kisan" (Kill soldiers, farmers).
Modi said that if the BJP comes to power, the Food Corporation of India will be divided into three units - one that will look after procurement, one for warehousing facilities and third for delivering the produce where it is needed.
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