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Narendra Modi is a ‘fake Other Backward Communities member’, the Congress alleged on Thursday, seeking to puncture the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate’s attack on Priyanka Gandhi over her neech rajniti barbs.
In remarks that could fuel fresh controversy, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil also alleged that Modi was never a tea vendor but had only whiled away time at a canteen, where his relative was the contractor, and whose ‘license was cancelled over sale of charas’. “This is also a big lie that he used to sell tea. One of the relatives of Modi was the canteen’s contractor where he (Modi) used to go for time-pass. A retired deputy superintendent has told me that the contract of that canteen was cancelled as charas was being sold there,” Gohil said.
The Congress leader hastened to add that he had no proof of this right now and hence was ‘not levelling any allegation’, and said he had filed an application through the Right to Information Act to ascertain the facts.
On Modi saying the Congress was targeting his lower caste origin, Gohil released a copy of a Gujarat government circular to claim that Modi ‘manipulated’ to bring his Modh Ghanchi caste into the OBC list after he became chief minister of the state.
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“Of late, the Gujarat CM has been indulging in low level of political gimmickry. He has been desperately trying to invoke the OBC status and garner sympathy. Modi does not belong to OBC as he has been claiming to exploit OBC votes. He belongs to rich and prosperous Modh Ghanchis who were never given any kind of reservation nor were included in OBCs before Modi became CM. In the way encounters were fake in Gujarat, Modi is also a fake OBC,” Gohil said.
Gohil further added, “Modi has been making loud claims of whether it is a sin to be of this particular caste? It is not a crime to be of any caste or community. But it definitely is a crime to put an upper caste in OBC category and then cry discrimination.”
Gohil said that Modi became chief minister of Gujarat in September 2001, and a circular was issued on January 1, 2002, by Gujarat government declaring Modh Ghanchis as OBCs. “By acquiring OBC status for his selfish motives, Modi has in fact encroached upon the right of members of OBC. Modi is a man born in upper caste and is indulging in low-level politics,” Gohil claimed.
“Modi should speak the truth and tell the nation why he committed a sin of snatching the rights of OBCs, as by including an upper caste in OBC list. The Gujarat CM should apologise to the backward castes for insulting them. He engages in low level politics and when somebody raises a voice against it, he tries to project it as an insult to backward communities,” he said.