Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reiterated his allegation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah "lied" to the nation regarding the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, claiming it was about women's reservation.
Addressing an election rally in Tamil Nadu's Ranipet, a day after the bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha by the Opposition, the Congress leader alleged that hidden behind the claims regarding women's reservation was a "diabolical idea" to change the nation's electoral map and weaken the states.
"Yesterday, you might have seen what PM Modi, and Home Miniser Amit Shah were trying to do in Parliament. They told the nation a lie, they said they were trying to pass a bill for women's representation. But hidden behind that bill was a diabolical idea," Gandhi said.
The Congress leader further said what was attempted by the BJP-led Centre was an "anti-national act."
"They wanted to change no of seats that each state gets. They wanted to weaken south Indian states, weaken north eastern states and weaken smaller states...what the BJP was trying to do yesterday was an anti-national act, and it was against the union of states," he said.
The entire opposition stood like a rock and defeated the BJP's "nefarious design," he added.
Alleging that the BJP is attacking the democratic foundations of the country, Gandhi said they were using delimitation as a political weapon.
"They have transformed the electoral map of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir and they want to do that to the rest of the country. Their main idea is to attack your (Tamil) history, culture, language and tradition," he said.
Launching his election campaign for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls at Ponneri earlier in the day, Gandhi slammed BJP ally AIADMK, saying it was not the same party that strived for the people of the state and described it as a "hollow shell."
"When you see AIADMK flag, its leaders, remember they are fully controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (Union Home minister) Amit Shah because of their corruption. New AIADMK is just a mask; the mask hiding BJP," he said.
Alleging that the BJP has "destroyed" the AIADMK, Gandhi said, "It had a great tradition of defending the people of Tamil Nadu like the DMK, but that AIADMK died long back...AIADMK has been eaten up from inside by Modi and Amit Shah."
Speaking on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Gandhi said the Opposition defeated the bill in Lok Sabha to "defend the idea of India."
"We defeated a bill in which delimitation was hidden; we defeated it to defend the idea of India," he asserted.
He accused the BJP of wanting an India "where two or three companies control everything."
It wanted to "crush the ideas of rationalist leader EV Ramasamy 'Periyar', your model of government, and destroy the idea of social justice," he alleged and appealed to the people to "stop this assault by RSS-BJP."
The Congress leader slammed PM Modi for allegedly wanting to rule "Tamil Nadu from Delhi" and asserted that no force on this planet can touch the state or the Tamil language, "which was not an ordinary language."
"It is thousands of years of your experience, and memories," Gandhi said.
"Like armies of olden days, BJP wants to attack the Tamil language, destroy history, twist Tamil culture. We will never ever allow it," Rahul said.
The Congress is a part of the ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance and is contesting from 28 seats. Tamil Nadu Assembly polls will be conducted in a single phase on April 23.
(With inputs from PTI)
