New Delhi, April 23: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on associating spirituality with cleaning of toilets and also took a jibe at him on frying of 'pakodas'.
"The Prime Minister sees spirituality in cleaning of toilets and making 'pakodas'. But, for Modi, becoming the Prime Minister only is spirituality," the Congress leader said at the nationwide 'Save the Constitution' campaign launched here.
Quoting Modi from his book "Karmyogi", Gandhi said: "This quote reflects his thinking and ideology."
The Congress leader further quoted Modi as saying: "What is the spirituality of a person working to clean toilets? Has anyone experienced the spirituality of a man of the Valmiki samaj, who has to remove human excreta and dirt everyday.
"I do not believe that he accepted the task merely to fill his belly. He would not have stayed for so long in that profession, and certainly not from generation to generation. Probably, sometime for happiness of God and society, he would have thought it is his responsibility to keep the environment clean and he accepted the work and continues to do the work for generations out of his spirituality."
Gandhi said: "This is the thinking of our Prime Minister -- 'a person from the Valmiki community who cleans the toilet doesn't do it to fill his stomach but for spirituality'. Every poor and every person has to understand -- this is our PM's thinking."
Gandhi said that the Dalits were angry with Modi because of this ideology.
"You may garland B.R. Ambedkar's statue or a picture, but with such thinking you can never respect him. And every Dalit understands this. They know that this person (Modi) has no place for Dalits, weaker sections, and women, in his heart," the Congress chief said.
Rahul Gandhi also claimed that atrocities on Dalits were increasing in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and elsewhere. "They are being crushed, lynched, and attacked."
He said: "There is violence against Dalits in Una (in Gujarat), and the man (Modi) who sees spirituality in cleaning of toilets doesn't speak even a word. When we raised our voice, after three days, he (Modi) came on stage and tears rolled down."
Prompted by a party worker on the issue of the BJP promise to create two crore jobs every year if the party came to power, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Prime Minister: "There is spirituality in making 'pakodas' also -- you should understand this. This is the truth in the country."
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Maharashtra Cong chief Nana Patole scrapes through in Sakoli, wins by 208 votes
Mumbai, Nov 23: Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole survived a scare from his nearest BJP rival in the Sakoli assembly constituency but managed to win the tight contest by a narrow margin of 208 votes.
Patole, the incumbent Congress MLA from Sakoli, polled 96,795 votes, while his challenger from BJP, Avinash Brahmankar, came tantalisingly close to bagging 96,587 votes.
Independent nominee Somadatta Karanjekar was a distant third, bagging 18,309 votes.
While Patole managed to save the face with the thin margin, the Congress unit led by him and the Maha Vikas Aghadi were routed by the BJP-led Mahayuti in the one-sided contest.
