BJP Defends PM Modi's "Infiltrators" Jibe, Says He Called A Spade A Spade

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a spade a spade and has echoed people's sentiments, the BJP asserted on Monday after the opposition termed his remarks at a poll rally in Rajasthan as communally divisive. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia told reporters that the opposition is in pain as PM Modi has showed them the mirror about its past.

His remarks have resonated with people as for the opposition INDIA bloc those who have illegally entered the country are more important than citizens if they happen to be Muslims, he alleged.

Addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Banswara, PM Modi alleged that the Congress plans to give people's hard-earned money and valuables to "infiltrators" and "those who have more children".

In his remarks in Rajasthan, PM Modi said, "Earlier, when their (Congress) government was in power, they had said that Muslims have the first right on the country's assets. This means to whom will this property be distributed? It will be distributed among those who have more children".

Targeting PM Modi, the Congress on Monday accused him of attempting to create communal polarisation for electoral gains.

AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal said the Prime Minister was quoting something that wasn't there in the Congress manifesto and that he was attempting to create "communal polarisation" in the country for electoral gains.

Mr Bhatia asked if the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had in 2006 not said that minorities, especially Muslims, have the first rights in the country's resources.

He said the UPA was a black chapter in the Indian democracy and if the INDIA alliance feels ashamed, so be it.

Addressing the 52nd Meeting of the National Development Council in 2006, former prime minister Singh had said, "We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the overall resource availability".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)