Lucknow: Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Friday made a mockery of her party’s much touted slogan — ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ — by telling Muslims in Sultanpur to vote for her if they wanted jobs. The EC has taken cognisance of the matter and asked Maneka to explain her remarks.
Almost chiding the Muslims at a public rally, she said that she would not accommodate them if they did not vote for her. Extolling the virtues of ‘saudebaazi,’ she further said that Muslim voters need to understand that it was a give and take relationship. ‘‘I am winning. I am winning because of the support and love of people. But if my victory is without Muslims, I won’t feel that good. Then, dil khatta ho jayega.
Then when a Muslim comes to me for work, I will think let it be, how does it matter? It’s all give and take, isn’t it? We aren’t all sons of Mahatma Gandhi, are we? It’s not that we keep on giving and then lose in the election. This victory will happen with or without you. And you have to spread the word on this,” Maneka told the gathering, as the video shows. The three-minute speech went viral on social media and sparked outrage for its blatantly communal content.
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Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded that the Election Commission register an FIR against her and cancel her nomination, while party leader Sanjay Jha slammed Gandhi and termed the statement as ‘scandalous’.”SCANDAL! Naukri ek sauda hai, says BJP’s Maneka Gandhi. Dear Demographic Dividend India, now you know why India has unemployment, jobs crisis.
For the BJP, providing jobs is a deal; you have to help them first, to get a job. A quid pro quo. It is a barter, give & take,” Jha tweet-ed. Gandhi had won the Lok Sabha elections from Pilibhit in UP in 2014. However, the party fielded her from Sultanpur this time, while her son Varun has been fielded from her erstwhile seat.
The Samajwadi Party, too, slammed Maneka with party spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi saying that the statement not only amounted to a clear cut violation of the Model Code of Conduct, but was also an offence of criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code. ‘‘She is jittery at the prospect of her defeat from Sultanpur. By swapping the constituencies, it is crystal clear that both mother and son utterly failed in their duty as BJP MPs,” he said.
