Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday claimed that ever since Narendra Modi came to power in Gujarat in 2002 the State had not seen any communal riots and the attackers of Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra were sent to jail, “where they are now chanting ‘Jagannath Jagannath’”.
The Home Minister, who virtually inaugurated 57 housing and office complexes for police in 25 districts at an event in Nadiad in Kheda district, said, “I hail from Gujarat and I have seen the State before the BJP came to power and Modiji became the Chief Minister.”
“I am not here to speak of the misdeeds of the Congress government, which had spread hatred between communities and promoted communal violence. As a result, Gujarat used to be confined under curfew for 200 days a year. For several days, banks, factories and businesses used to be shut down; there was so much loss to the economy. If there was a Rath Yatra, communal violence was bound to happen,” he said.
Shah asked, “After the BJP government came to power, has a single person dared to attack the Rath Yatra? Say it loudly… Has anyone dared? Those who had dared are today sitting in lockups chanting ‘Jagannath Jagannath’.”
He said it was the BJP government that brought peace in the border state “without doing any appeasement”. “During my student days, as an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad worker, I went to Porbandar, where I saw billboards saying ‘the Porbandar border begins here and law and order ends here’. There was a rule of smugglers and mafia and the state government, through a notification, had to shut down a jail over there. When I became the home minister, I started the work of opening a jail right on the chest of these mafias.”
The Union Home Minister claimed that when Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had given strict instructions that the smuggling of drugs, weapons and explosives through the Kutch border must be stopped.
“Today no one can dare enter the state through the Kutch border. Despite being a border state, Gujarat, without doing any tushtikaran (appeasement) has brought peace. We have such a long coastline and border with Pakistan but no one can disrupt the law and order in Gujarat,” said Shah.
“From CM Modi to CM Patel, the BJP government has spent Rs 3,840 crore to build houses for 31,146 police personnel in Gujarat. Be it Diwali, Holi, or Raksha Bandhan, police personnel are dedicated to their duty. Even during the Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad, when people are busy celebrating and eating prasad, police are engaged in bandobast. The sacrifice of the police is higher than any other department. Other department officials have a scheduled work time but not the police. I say it with pride after providing houses for over 31,000 personnel that Gujarat tops the country when it comes to police satisfaction,” said Shah.
