NEW DELHI: “My personal opinion is that the dress code, which is prescribed in the schools, should be followed by all children and it should be kept above religion”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday told a news channel while answering a question about the recent ban on wearing Hijab in Karnataka schools.
Shah, going further on the issue, said that the entire matter has become sub-judice and whatever decision of the concerned court comes soon should be accepted by all.
“My personal belief will remain personal only till the court delivers its verdict on the issue. Once the court gives its verdict, then I should also accept it along with everybody else,” Shah categorically said.
Lashing out at the Grand Old Party, he said that it was the Congress Party that introduced caste and religion in elections. “Later, the same was carried out in-depth and details by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party”, he alleged, adding that with the coming of BJP led NDA government in power, such trend in elections has started decreasing. He also mocked Rahul Gandhi saying that he (Rahul Gandhi) does not know what happened in 1962 and whose fault it was.
Sounding confident about the outcome of UP assembly elections, Shah claimed that the BJP with its allies would again form the government.
“Gone are the politics of those days. Now the time has started for the politics of performances. No one else will be needed to form the government. BJP alone will get a thumping majority in UP to continue in governance”, he predicted.
Quoting what happened in the elections in 2019, Shah said that all the four parties were together then and yet the BJP won 65 Lok Sabha seats.
“In politics, there is no 1 plus 1equals 2, sometimes it becomes 1 plus 1 equals 11,” he antithetically said over the outcomes of ongoing assembly election in UP, adding that PM Narendra Modi has changed the whole picture of elections by introducing numerous welfare schemes for the poor.
Making a scathing attack on the earlier governments of SP and the BSP in UP, Shah said that earlier politics was criminalised and the administration was politicised.
“But only after the Yogi government, there is neither criminalisation of politics nor politicisation of administration. Similar to the Modi government at the Centre, dynastic politics, casteism and appeasement politics had ended”, he averred.
He also alleged that the SP-BSP governments used to be run on the basis of casteism without listening to the people’s problems. “The hope of getting justice in those governments had ended amongst the people but since the day BJP formed the government under Modiji's leadership in 2014, people all over India including UP are seeing hope for justice and development”, he claimed.
“What welfare scheme benefits poor people did not get for the last 70 years, they have got in 5 years in better ways”, Shah said.
Speaking about inflation, the Union Home Minister said that it has increased all over the world but the Modi government has succeeded in controlling it in India.
“For the first 6 years of the Modi government’s tenure, we had kept inflation under control but after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, inflation has increased due to the global situation. But this is temporary”, he said.
Shah also sounded confident of forming governments in Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa. On a CAA-related question, Shah said that the CAA cannot be a priority until Corona is completely eradicated.