The Congress must apologise to the country for insulting the poor, Yogi Adityanath said.
The Congress cannot digest that sons of the poor, Dalit and backward classes are reaching the highest positions in the country, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday, a day after Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a criminal defamation case for his "Modi surname" remark.
Addressing a rally here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he attacked the opposition party, saying it has always done "politics of dividing the country" and has promoted "naxalism and terrorism" for its political gains.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat disqualified the Congress leader as MP from Wayanad in Kerala after he was convicted in the 2019 case and sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Surat court on Thursday for his remark "How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" Following his disqualification, he would not be able to contest elections for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction and sentence.
"The nation has been witness to how former Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave a statement against Dalits, poor, backward and underprivileged, throwing parliamentary decorum to the winds and stooped to the level of contempt of court," the chief minister said.
"The Congress must apologise to the country for insulting the poor, Dalits and backward people," he said in his address at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University grounds after the inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of projects worth Rs 1,780 crore.
India is presiding over G20, a group of the 20 most powerful countries of the world, and this is proof of India's growing influence globally, Mr Adityanath said.
"Not only the country but the world is seeing the new power of India. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, India has set a new example in front of the world," the chief minister said.
"While on one hand the world is feeling proud of India's progress and is eager to adopt its model (of development), on the other, there are some people who criticise the state despite having ruled it for generations," he said.
Referring to Gandhi's remarks in the UK, Mr Adityanath said that "they even have no qualms in putting India in the dock itself when they go abroad".
On Congress statements on electronic voting machines, he said, "The Congress is questioning EVMs with which they got the privilege of forming government (at the Centre) in 2004 and 2009." "The party (Congress) is upset that India is developing. It is their habit to put barriers at every level in every campaign of the prime minister," the chief minister said.
"The Congress never thought about the development of the country. These people always tried to divide the country in the name of caste, religion and language. They set new records of corruption during their tenure," he said.
Today, when India is going to shine at the global level, these people are obstructing the progress of the country by defaming it, he said referring to India hosting the G20 Summit.
While the Congress is increasing disharmony among castes, the government of today has been moving forward with the motto "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas" for the last nine years without any discrimination, Mr Adityanath said.
Housing, toilets, ration, cooking gas and electricity connections to the poor are being provided now, he said and added that whether it is the Ayushman Bharat scheme or other facilities of development, all these are reaching everyone equally without any discrimination.
The chief minister said the prime minister has come to here today to give the city a new and grand look through the projects.
He said in the last nine years, projects worth Rs 35,000 crores have either been completed or are about to be inaugurated in Kashi alone. These will be dedicated to the people of Kashi in the next visit of Modi, Mr Adityanath said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)