Modi coins acronym SCAM to slam rivals
Meerut : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attacked the BJP’s political rivals in Uttar Pradesh, saying that in the acronym SCAM ‘S’ stands for Samajwadi (Party), ‘C’ for Congress, ‘A’ for Akhilesh and ‘M’ for Mayawati. It drew a riposte from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who said the word stood for “Save the Country from Amit Shah and Modi”. The Congress too hit back.
Campaigning ahead of the first phase of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh assembly elections with a ‘Vijay Shankhnaad Rally’ here, Modi slammed the Samajwadi Party and Congress for forging a pre-poll alliance.
He called upon the people to give his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a mandate similar to the 2014 general elections when the party won 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. Modi also took digs at the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party on demonetisation and sought the people’s support in making the country “corruption-free”.
In his well attended rally, Modi urged people to vote for change and remove the state government that he claimed scuttled development.
He said it was a fight against “SCAM.” “Do you know what ‘SCAM’ stands for? It is ‘S’ for Samajwadi (Party), ‘C’ for Congress, ‘A’ for Akhilesh and ‘M’ for Mayawati.” “Uttar Pradesh has to decide whether it wants a scam or lotus (election symbol of BJP). It wants scam or development,” Modi said.
Hours after Modi’s remarks, Akhilesh Yadav returned fire, saying that ‘A’ and ‘M’ in the acronym stand for BJP President Amit Shah and Modi. Addressing a rally at Auraiya, the 43-year-old Samajwadi leader said SCAM means — “Save the Country from Amit Shah and Modi”. “If we have to save the country, we have to save it from the politicians whose names start with A and M,” Akhilesh said to loud cheers from his supporters.
The Prime Minister urged voters to defeat parties involved in graft and leaders who promoted caste and vote-bank politics. Referring to the November 8 demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Modi said he knew that people with ill-gotten wealth will become his enemies but the people are with him. “I am not going to stop, neither will I bow to such forces. I am Modi… I will not rest and will not allow those with ill-gotten money to rest. I am not going to stop the fight,” the BJP leader said as the audience cheered.
Modi took potshots at the BSP, saying people who had sold tickets and stashed money in rooms had lost it all (due to demonetisation). Attacking the Congress, he alleged that an undisclosed income of Rs 150 crore was found from the residence of a Karnataka minister but he had not been removed from office. The Congress should give an answer,” he said. Modi asked the income tax officials to go only after the big fish and not cause unnecessary problems for others. “If there is any harassment, bring it to my notice,” he said. The Prime Minister, who is an MP from Varanasi, said he had tried to do whatever he could for the development of Uttar Pradesh but a lot remained to be done. “But for the development to happen, you will have to remove the state government that scuttles development. Otherwise, howsoever hard I try to help Uttar Pradesh, the funds from Delhi will be stopped at Lucknow,” Modi said.
BJP has lost staunch supporter: Uddhav
Mumbai : Slamming BJP president Amit Shah, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said the upcoming electoral battles are no “friendly matches” and the BJP has lost a “staunch supporter” who backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi even after the Gujarat riots.
“The BJP president says this is a friendly match between them while the state leaders call this a ‘Mahabharat’ between ‘Kauravas’ and ‘Pandavas’. I want to tell Amit Shah this is no friendly match now. You have lost one who has always backed you and has been your staunch supporter. A supporter who backed (PM Narendra) Modi after the Gujarat riots when everybody was against him,” he told in his first BMC poll rally here.
Shah had last Sunday said there were no differences with the Sena and that he hoped its decision to contest the Maharashtra civic polls independently was not going to cause damage to the alliance.
Thackeray said he does not want to play the politics of alliance anymore after having seen the behaviour meted out to the Sena. “In future Sena will be alone only on the support of the Shiv Sainiks,” he said.
Quoting Shah, Thackeray said when he says there are no differences and only ‘manbhed’ (differences of the heart) between the estranged allies, the BJP should come clean on the issues on which there is a ‘manbhed’. “We will not leave the cause of Hindutva. If you do, there is manbhed’.
If you do not stop the atrocities being conducted by Pakistan, there is ‘manbhed’. If you give money to the family of Burhan Wani after he was killed, there is ‘manbhed’. If farmers’ land is snatched and given to industrialists and if people are made to stand in long queues due to demonetisation, there is ‘manbhed’,” the Sena chief said.
Thackeray said the “mask” of transparency the state BJP leaders had been wearing all along has been removed by its own government at the Centre as the Economic survey tabled in Parliament has ranked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation as the most transparent body in the country. “Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) said he will show the Sena its place on the day of results. I thank him for saying so as he has sealed our win with these comments. Even during the previous polls, the then Chief Minister had said Sena will nowhere be seen but today that Chief Minister is nowhere to be seen. We are here,” he said. “Recently when I had met the Chief Minister (Fadnavis) during a BMC programme, I had told him we are ready to give him credit even though no work has been done by them. But one should have the capacity to take free credit as well,” Thackeray said. He said historically, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister do not go campaign for local polls, but the current PM and the CM have no time to administer as they are busy campaigning for as small as society polls. “How and when will they administer then?” he questioned. “What kind of administration is this? Make big promises before polls and forget all of them later. This culture was never seen before and will never be seen in future as well,” he said.
