'Only a magician can do this,' Amit Shah's swipe at Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

Jaipur: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said law and order, electricity in villages and welfare schemes started by the previous government "vanished" after Ashok Gehlot came to power in Rajasthan and added "only a magician can do this", alluding to the chief minister's past.

Addressing campaign rallies in Rajasthan's Kuchaman, Makrana and Parbatsar in Nagaur ahead of the November 25 assembly polls, the senior BJP leader said the Congress government in the state is the "most corrupt" and has crossed "all limits of appeasement", and appealed to people to uproot it.

He also accused the Congress of insulting Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

He cited the killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, various communal incidents, illegal mining and recruitment exam paper leaks to target the state government.

Shah said the Congress is a family-based party and can never do any good to Rajasthan.

He alleged that Sonia Gandhi wants to make her son the prime minister and Ashok Gehlot wants to make his son the chief minister but they are unable to "launch" their sons, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Chandrayaan and the tricolour was unfurled on the moon.

He said the Congress insulted OBCs.

In an apparent reference to a controversy triggered by Rahul Gandhi's remark in 2019, he accused the Congress leader of insulting backward class leaders of his own party by labelling people of Modi's caste as thieves.

"How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?" Rahul Gandhi had said then.

"In the Modi government, 27 per cent of 76 ministers are OBCs. Twenty-nine per cent of our 303 MPs are OBCs, 27 per cent of our 1,358 MLAs are OBCs and 40 per cent of 163 MLCs are from backward classes," he said.

Referring to Chief Minister Gehlot's previous association with magic, Shah said he has made law and order, electricity in rural areas and schemes launched by the previous BJP government led by Vasundhara Raje vanish.

"Only a magician can do this," he said. In his early days, Gehlot briefly assisted his father in his magic shows.

Shah said some communists he had met at the airport told him that they would not go for campaigning in Rajasthan because the colour of their party flag is red.

"They told me that Gehlot gets angry on seeing the colour red," Shah said, in the context of a "red diary" which, according to the allegation of terminated minister Rajendra Gudha, contains details of illegal financial transactions of the chief minister.

He said that Gehlot should have resigned instead of taking action against the minister.

He accused the Congress of stalling the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya for 70 years.

"Lord Shri Ram was in a state of humiliation for more than 550 years. The Congress was stalling the construction of Ram temple for 70 years, but (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi performed its bhoomi pujan," he said.

Prime Minister Modi is also going to attend the temple's consecration on January 22, he said and appealed to people to book tickets for their travel to Ayodhya on that day.

The Congress leaders who used to question the BJP have gone silent now, he said.

"Rahul Baba used to ask when the temple will be completed and now the date has been fixed and he has gone silent. Rahul Baba would not come but you people book your tickets and come to Ayodhya on January 22," he said.

Shah also alleged that the Congress can neither keep the country safe nor bring glory, whereas Prime Minister Modi has done the work of taking the national flag to the moon.

India launched a spacecraft on the lunar surface earlier this year, becoming the fourth country to achieve the feat.

He said that terrorists from Pakistan carried out attacks in Uri and Pulwama and within 10 days, surgical strike and air strike were done because it was Modi's rule and not Congress' rule.

Referring to various communal incidents and the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, the BJP leader said the Gehlot government worked to ban Ram Navmi and Mahaveeer Jayanti processions but gave the PFI permission to take out rally in Kota.

He said that Kanhaiya Lal was beheaded in broad daylight in Udaipur.

Shah said that the Congress government has no courage to punish the culprits. He said that communal incidents were the result of the appeasement policy of the Congress government and therefore such incidents happened in the Congress rule.

"It was the Modi government which banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and put its members behind bars," he said.

Lashing out at the state government over illegal mining, he said, "Illegal mining increased to such a level that a sant committed suicide by burning himself, yet Gehlot did not open his eyes."

He gave a guarantee to people of the state that tap water will be provided to all households in two-and-a-half years after the BJP forms the state government.

Shah also said that Rs 2 lakh crore was given to Rajasthan by the erstwhile UPA government from 2004 to 2014, whereas the Modi government gave Rs 8.71 lakh crore from 2014 to 2023 and executed projects worth Rs 6 lakh crore in nine years.

The home minister also raised the issue of recruitment exam paper leaks and said that in four years, 14 papers including that of recruitment tests for constable, technical helper, REET level two, forest guard, LDC were leaked and the future of 40 lakh youths were pushed to dark by the Congress government in order to give jobs to its people.

He called upon the people to vote for the BJP candidates in the assembly elections this year and Lok Sabha elections next year.

He said that this time Diwali will be celebrated thrice - one on the day of Diwali, second when the BJP gets mandate in counting on December 3 and third on January 22 when the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be consecrated.

State BJP president C P Joshi and party candidates from different assembly constituencies were present in the rallies.