Congress biased towards Muslims, Modi is towards none: Giriraj Singh

Patna: Union minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday asserted that the Narendra Modi government has never discriminated against Muslims, while charging the Congress-led opposition with a bias in favour of its minority vote bank.

The senior BJP leader also said his party looked forward to the construction of "grand temples" at Kashi and Mathura, just like Ayodhya, in Modi's third term with the NDA winning more than 400 seats.

"When Modi disbursed gas cylinders, free ration, houses for the poor and toilets, the beneficiaries included both Hindus and Muslims since there was no discrimination", Singh told PTI video.

"This was in contrast with the previous Congress-led regimes, when Muslims were given preference and even the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could openly pitch for the minority community having the first claim on resources", said Singh, who holds Panchayati Raj and Rural Development portfolios in the Modi cabinet.

He alleged that in a state like Karnataka, where the Congress is in power, "all Muslims have been stealthily declared OBCs, to the detriment of Hindu backward classes", and that the opposition party's allies like the RJD in Bihar intended to do the same here.

The BJP leader added "After we got 300 plus seats in 2019, the government scrapped Article 370. This time, with a 400 plus tally, the government will usher in vikas with virasat (speedy economic growth while protecting cultural heritage)".

Elaborating on the remark, he said "We have already got a temple built at Ayodhya. Now, we shall have grand temples (bhavya mandir) at Kashi and Mathura as well".

The Union minister also made light of the promise of a "10 kg free ration per month" made by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, mocking the veteran leader as "just a mouthpiece (bhonpu) of Rahul Gandhi".

Singh, who represents Bihar's Begusarai Lok Sabha seat, also charged Gandhi with having "run away" from Amethi following a defeat at the hands of his cabinet colleague Smriti Irani and expressed confidence that the Congress leader will be defeated in Rae Bareli.

"Rae Bareli will be one of the 400 plus seats NDA is going to win. Rahul Gandhi may then go back to his mother's native place in Italy. If need be, he may get baptized (kaan phunkwa lounge) at the Vatican church", said the BJP leader. He also alleged that Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra disliked Modi because the PM was "proof that a man born to a poor mother can reach the top".