Modi slams Congress manifesto on sedition law

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday slammed Congress' promise to scrap the sedition law, in its manifesto, while calling it a document of false promises.

"Congress wants to encourage those who burn the tricolour, those who do not chant Jai Hind like you and me and rather utter the divisive lines like Bharat tere tukre tukre..., those who plays under instructions of foreign hands, those disrespecting the Constitution and those who break the statue of saint-like Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. Tell us shouldn't we have a sedition law to deal with those who work against the country and our Constitution? But Congress wants to scrap the sedition law. Congress can stoop so low to come back to power," Modi said while addressing an election rally at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh. The frontier state has two Lok Sabha seats.

Modi's comment came a day after Congress released its manifesto for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, that promised to scrap the sedition law once it comes back to power, among others. "Is it not a step to strengthen the hands of the secessionist? Congress' hands are with the secessionists or the patriots?" he said.

Stating that the manifesto be called a document of false promises Modi said, "Today your chowkidar is asking you to be vigilant and stay awake against their false promises. In 2004, Congress had promised to provide electricity to all households by 2009. But in 2009, they again made the same promise and then in 2014 they promised that all houses in urban areas will be provided electricity and 90% in rural areas will get electricity. They announced a scheme also but when we came to power in 2014, we found 18,000 villages still languishing in darkness. Tell something about what happened to your promise in 2004." Modi said.

Modi said his government set a target to provide electricity to the 18,000 families within 1,000 days and fulfilled the promise. "Congress, one the other hand failed to keep the promise it made to the nation and the Northeast."

Modi broke promises: Rahul

About two hours after Modi's rally, Congress president Rahul Gandhi charged in neighbouring Nagaland that Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to keep his major promises like generating two crore jobs, Rs. 15 lakh to all bank accounts and handed over Rs. 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani from the Rafale deal, even as he had promised to be a vigilant chowkidar.

"He could not give jobs and loans to poor farmers, youths and students but he has successfully handed over the public money to Ambani," Rahul said, adding that BJP tried to destroy the culture and tradition of the Northeast by bringing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. Nagaland has one Lok Sabha seat.

Rahul will address two more rallies in Assam this afternoon.