PM Modi flays INDIA bloc for opposing SIR
Gayaji (Bihar), Aug 22 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday charged the INDIA bloc with opposing moves aimed at rooting out corruption in higher echelons of power and steps taken to tackle “threat” posed to the nation’s demography from “infiltrators”.
The PM made indirect references to the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, introduced by his government earlier this week, and the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, currently being carried out in Bihar by the Election Commission, at a rally in Gayaji.
“We have seen a regrettable situation in which people in seats of power have been running governments from jail, signing files from behind bars, tearing to shreds constitutional propriety,” said Modi, in an apparent reference to former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Proudly claiming that there was “no taint of corruption” on his 11-year-old government, the PM drew a contrast with the previous Congress regimes, which saw many scams coming to the fore, and the RJD, the corruption of which, while in power in Bihar, “is known even to the man on the street”.
“So, we decided to bring in a law that provides for dismissing a corrupt chief minister, or even the Prime Minister, if he or she spends 30 days in jail. A lowly clerk, if he is jailed for a short period, is placed under suspension. But when we brought in a stringent law, the RJD, the Congress and the Left were livid. They are angry because they are scared of facing punishment for their own sins,” Modi alleged.
“The Congress and RJD, while in power, filled up their coffers with public money. For this purpose, they would make projects linger on endlessly. In contrast, I am inaugurating a bridge today for which I had laid the foundation stone barely a few years ago,” he said.
“There is one more threat — that of infiltrators (ghuspaithiye) that our nation faces, which I also spoke about in my Independence Day speech. They cannot be allowed to partake of resources of our country. I have, therefore, called for a demography mission. But the Congress and the RJD want to protect these infiltrators for the sake of their politics of vote bank,” Modi alleged.
