Is Congress party only for Muslim men? asks PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi with Yogi Adityanath in Azamgarh to lay the foundation stone for the 340-km Purvanchal Expressway. Pic/PTI

Days ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament when the government is likely to push for the passage of a bill against instant triple talaq, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mocked Congress for being a party, which stood only with Muslim men.

"The real face of these parties was revealed by their approach on triple talaq," he said at a public meeting here, part of his two-day visit to eastern Uttar Pradesh. "On one side the Centre is making efforts to ease and improve the lives of women and on the other these parties are working to put the lives of women, especially Muslim women, in danger," he said criticising the opposition.

"Crores of Muslim women had always demanded that triple talaq should be banned, as it is also banned in Islamic countries," he said. "I read in the newspaper that the Congress president had said that the Congress is a party of Muslims, and there has been discussion on this for the past two days," he said in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi's recent meeting with Muslim intellectuals.

"I am not surprised as when Manmohan Singh was the PM, he had said that Muslims have the first right over natural resources," Modi said. "But I want to ask the Congress whether it is a party of Muslim men alone," he added. The criticism comes ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament where a bill abolishing instant divorce among Muslims, already passed in the Lok Sabha, is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

Shah Congress can't preserve democracy
In a sharp attack on the Congress and the Gandhi-Nehru family, BJP president Amit Shah said that a party which "failed" in establishing internal democracy can never preserve India's democracy. Before the BJP came to power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, India was lagging behind other countries in most key areas such as economic growth, agriculture and on social sector indicators, he said. However in the past four years, things have improved considerably, Shah added.

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