Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi challenging him to debate on Congress party's manifesto. His second letter came in response to a personalised letter PM Modi wrote to BJP candidates. Kharge in his letter said that the language in PM Modi's letter to his candidates “does not suit the office of the Prime Minister”. This development cames just a day after PM Modi wrote to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidates contesting in the Lok Sabha elections on May 7, the third phase of the 18th general elections.
The Prime Minister, in a personalised letter, had asked saffron party candidates to talk to voters about the “divisive” and “discriminatory” intention of the Congress and its allies in the I.N.D.I.A bloc to “snatch” the SC, ST and OBC reservation and give it to “their vote bank” even though granting “reservation on religious grounds is unconstitutional”.
Mallikarjun Kharge, in his second letter to PM Modi, said voters are “intelligent enough to read and understand by themselves what the Congress has written in its manifesto and what Guarantees we have promised”.
“From the tone and content of the letter, it seems that there is a lot of desperation and worry in you which is leading you to use language that does not suit the office of the Prime Minister. The letter makes it look like the lies in your speeches are not having the effect you intended and now you want your candidates to amplify your lies. Repeating a lie a thousand times will not make it the truth,” read the letter by Kharge. Adding, “Our guarantees are so simple and clear, that we don’t have to explain it to them,” he said.
Earlier on April 25, Kharge wrote to PM Modi saying he had been “misinformed on the Congress Nyay Patra” and sought a meeting with him “in person to explain to him Manifesto, so that he doesn’t make any false statements in future”.
Kharge said, “In your letter, you claim that reservation will be taken away from SC, ST, and OBC and given to ‘our votebank’. Our vote bank is every Indian – the poor, the marginalised, the women, the aspirational youth, the labour class, the Dalits and the Adivasis. Everyone knows it is the RSS and BJP who opposed reservations at every stage since 1947. Everyone knows it is the RSS and BJP which wants to change the Constitution to end reservation. Your leaders have openly spoken about it. You need to clarify why you are opposed to reservation to SC, ST, and OBCs on the basis of their population as per Article 16 of our Constitution.”
“In your letter, you have said people’s hard-earned money will be snatched and given away. I would like to take this opportunity to request you direct your party to return the Rs 10 crore that was swindled from the poor Dalit farmers in Gujarat and given as electoral bonds to the BJP. Your party amassed Rs 8,250 crore through the ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ Electoral Bonds from various companies using Chanda Do-Dhanda Lo, Theka Lo-Ghoos Do, Hafta Vasooli, and Farzi company routes and schemes. Out of the 8,250 crore, you can return at least Rs 10 crore to this Dalit family,” he said in his second letter to PM Modi.
“Your letter lies that Congress wants to bring Inheritance Tax when it is your former Finance Minister and your party leaders who have repeatedly mentioned they want Inheritance Tax. People can see these speeches and comments of your leaders online,” Kharge’s letter said.
"I see from your letter that you are worried by the low turnout of voters in the first two phases of the elections. It shows people are not enthusiastic about your policies or your campaign speeches. This is not because of the summer heat, but because the poor have been burnt by your policies. You have appealed to your karyakartas to mobilise voters in the name of religion. If the voters are not keen to vote for you, do not blame your karyakartas," Kharge said in his letter.