BJP doesn’t discriminate between Hindus and Muslims; women’s respect most important to us: Rajnath

Rewa (MP), Apr 11 (PTI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that the BJP does not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims and that the respect of women is of paramount importance to it, citing the ban on triple talaq.

He was addressing a public meeting in Rewa Lok Sabha seat, where his party has fielded sitting MP Janardhan Mishra against Congress’ Neelam Mishra. Singh also batted for the ‘one nation, one election’ idea and called the track record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government “remarkable”.

“People say the BJP always talks of Hindus and Muslims. I want to say that we do not discriminate between Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews,” Singh asserted.

The defence minister said his party takes along with it all.

“We believe all born in Bharat are the children of Bharat Mata. We don’t discriminate,” he said.

The allegations of bias against the BJP grew sharper after it declared its intention to ban triple talaq. “We did not end it (instant triple talaq) by fooling people. It was our resolve and word,” he said.

Be it Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews or Parsis, BJP treats its “sisters equally”. “Our ancient practice and that of the BJP is to respect women,” said the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

“After marrying someone, if anybody leaves her saying ‘talaq, talaq and talaq’, the BJP won’t tolerate it even if it loses the government. We won’t allow women to be disrespected on our soil,” he said.

Singh also batted for the ‘one nation, one election’ idea and said he had earlier expressed concerns that the people of MP who had voted in the assembly polls just four months ago would cast their ballot again in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP will go to polls in four phases between April 19 and May 13 and votes will be counted on June 4.

“Now after four months, they will vote again. I have also said that the country should have a ‘one nation, one election’ system. It should happen in one go,” said Singh.

After ‘one nation, one election’, local body polls should take place in the country. “But it should be held at the most in two batches,” Singh said.

Calling the track record of the Modi government at the Centre “remarkable”, Singh said it also pulled 25 crore people out of poverty, provided LPG cylinders to women under Ujjwala Yojana and took the country’s economy from 11th place to 5th place in the world.

By 2026, the Defence minister said, India’s economy will be at the third place in the world and by 2047, the country will become a developed nation. While approaching 2070, it will become the biggest power in the world, he claimed.

Singh said that during Modi’s tenure, the nation’s standing in the world has increased. The Russia-Ukraine war was stopped for four-and-a-half hours on the intervention of PM Modi for the safe exit of Indian students from there, he said.

He also cited India’s diplomatic victory linked with Qatar, saying eight former Indian Navy officers who were awarded capital punishment by a court there were set free after Modi requested that country’s leadership.

Singh said India has become a major force in the world in the past 10 years under Modi’s leadership and added that it now not only manufactures weapons and fighter planes but also exports them.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with former chief minister Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath emerging as the lone victorious Congress candidate.