Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Noting that greater than 90,000 Pakistani troopers surrendered within the 1971 Indo-Pak War, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asserted if he had been in energy he would have taken Kartapur Sahib from Pakistan earlier than liberating their troops. Addressing a rally at Patiala, his first within the state for the seventh section of Lok Sabha polls on June 1, Modi stated Punjab and the Sikh group have all the time been on the forefront of national-building efforts, whilst he lambasted the present AAP authorities over problems with corruption and medicines commerce.
PM Modi raked up the delicate topic of the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara, which is revered by Sikhs since Guru Nanak Dev spent his remaining years there. He accused the Congress of being the reason for the nation’s division, claiming they did it for their very own political achieve. Kartar Sahib is positioned in Punjab, Pakistan, a brief distance from the Indian border. This is the place the partition left it. “For 70 years, we could have a ‘darshan’ of the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara only with binoculars,” Modi said.
In 1971, he claimed, “we had the trump card in our hands” when over 90,000 Pakistani troopers surrendered to the Indian Army, creating a possibility to retake the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara. “They (Congress) did not do that, but I did what I could,” Modi stated, referring to the Kartapur Sahib Corridor, which opened in 2019 and made it simpler for Sikh pilgrims to journey to the shrine.
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#WATCH | Patiala, Punjab: Addressing a public rally, PM Modi says, “Congress did the partition of the country in such a way that for 70 years, we had to look at Kartarpur Sahib through binoculars… When the Bangladesh war was fought, more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers had… pic.twitter.com/IohSmC0OX4
— ANI (@ANI) May 23, 2024
Modi, who was campaigning for Preneet Kaur, the spouse of former chief minister Amarinder Singh and the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Patiala, stated he had come to hunt blessings within the land of Gurus “by bowing my head”. Other BJP candidates, together with Parampal Kaur Sidhu from Bathinda, Arvind Khanna from Sangrur, Hans Raj Hans from Faridkot, and Gejja Ram Valmiki from Fatehgarh Sahib, had been additionally on stage as Modi spoke, carrying conventional Sikh turbans.
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PM stated that Punjab has led the nation in quite a lot of sectors, together with agriculture and trade. However, the present “fiercely corrupt” Bhagwant Mann authorities has altered all of that, he added. “Trade and industry are leaving Punjab, while the drug trade expands. “The complete state authorities is in debt.
The prime minister said that the federal government’s authority doesn’t apply right here whereas the sand and drug mafia, in addition to shooter gangs, rule. “All ministers are happy, and the ‘kagazi CM’ is constantly marking his presence in the ‘Delhi darbar’. “Can such folks carry growth to Punjab?” He additionally criticised the AAP and the Congress for competing within the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi whereas opposing one another in Punjab.
“In Punjab, they fight each other in elections just to show the people. Delhi’s ‘fiercely corrupt party’ and the party responsible for anti-Sikh riots are staging a fight against each other),” he stated.
Modi outlined steps taken by his authorities to learn the Sikh group, together with a tax exemption on supplies used to make ‘langar’ and a leisure of overseas donation norms for the Golden Temple. He added that his authorities had declared ‘Veer Baal Diwas’ to commemorate the martyrdom of the tenth Sikh Guru’s sons. He added that his authorities had introduced Sikh households and’saroops’ of Guru Granth Sahib from Afghanistan.
“I have blood relations with you,” Modi stated, noting that certainly one of Guru Gobind Singh’s ‘panj pyare’ (5 beloved ones) was from Gujarat. He said that whereas serving as Gujarat chief minister, he rebuilt a gurdwara the place the primary Sikh Guru Nanak Dev as soon as halted, which had been broken by an earthquake. “Modi doesn’t do it for votes. “Modi’s head bows earlier than the sacrifices of Sikh Gurus,” he declared.
Continuing his attack on the INDIA bloc, he stated that “they neither have a frontrunner, nor an intent,” and that their primary objective is to appease their voter base, whereas the BJP’s mantra is ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’.
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