"Urban Maoists live in AC surroundings, move around in big cars and their children study abroad, but they ruin the lives of our poor adivasi youth here through remote control. Why is Congress supporting these Urban Maoists?" the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister further added that whenever the government acts against them, the 'Urban Maoists' take to the streets. "Will you forgive such people," he asked.
"I urge the people of Bastar to teach a befitting lesson to the Congress leaders, who on one hand try to shield the 'urban Maoists', and in Chhattisgarh, they speak about freeing the state from Maoists," he said.
The term "urban Naxal/Maoists" had come into prominence in August following the arrest of left-leaning activists on charges of abetting Maoists.
Human rights activists and lawyers Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and writer and Maoist ideologue P Varavara Rao were arrested by the Pune police in multi-city raids in August earlier this year. The activists were arrested following the probe relating to the Elgar Parishad held on the eve of the January 1 violence in Koregaon Bhima.
Following the arrests, BJP president Amit Shah had accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of raising a " hue and cry" over the arrest of "urban naxals".
"The Maharashtra government arrested urban naxals and found through their email exchange that they wanted mortar guns and machine guns. They were plotting to kill Modi," Shah had said, speaking at a BJP workers' gathering at Rewa in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
Today, in Chhattisgarh, the Prime Minister slammed the Naxals accusing them of exploiting young children by arming them. "The children who should have pens in their hands, however, people with devious mindset have armed them with guns," he said.
Later in his address, the Prime Minister targeted the previous Congress-led governments for ignoring development work in the state.
"For 10 years, Congress was at the Centre, but they never paid attention to the needs of Chhattisgarh and blocked all development for the state. They never thought of the region's progress," he said.
The Prime Minister accused the Congress of 'dehumanising' the Dalits, underprivilged, victims and poor and only looking at them from the periscope of vote bank.
"The Congress is not ready to see them as humans," he said.
Earlier today, Congress president Rahul Gandhi too had held a rally in the poll-bound state.
The Congress leader targeted the the Modi-led government on demonetisation, and also on government's "inability" to prevent several economic offenders from fleeing the country.
"All of you were standing in long queues during Demonetisation but not one black money holder was seen. Also, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and Mehul Choksi ran away from the country with your money," Rahul said.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2PiceXt
