Piyush Goyal, Union Minister and BJP candidate from Maharashtra’s Mumbai North constituency dismissed the “noise” that “Muslims are in danger” claims are part of appeasement politics as he asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “never ever” discriminated.
In an interview with ANI, Piyush Goyal said that Prime Minister Modi thinks about the upliftment of everyone and never asked for anybody’s caste or religion in ‘Modi ki Guarantee Sankalp Patra 2024.’
“That (Muslims in danger) is a noise that is created as part of appeasement politics by certain political parties, more particularly the Congress and I don’t think that common man buys that anymore. The common man has started realising that Prime Minister Modi means good for everybody,” Piyush Goyal told ANI.
“He has never discriminated when he gives 80 crore people free food. He has never discriminated in the selection of four crore families to provide a free home. He has never asked anybody the colour of their skin, their caste, their creed, their language, or their religion, when he enrols people for Ayushman Bharat or when he guarantees in his Modi ki Guarantee Sankalp Patra 2024. that as soon as we come into our third term, one of the first decisions will be to extend Ayushman Bharat’s Rs 5 lakh healthcare to everybody above the age of 70. He never ever discriminates when he ensures that every home will get nal se jal (water from a tap) or every home gets electricity, every home gets LPG connection, every home gets digital connectivity, and every road gets rural roads connecting them. Prime Minister Modi has never ever discriminated,” he added.
He further took a dig at the previous UPA government led by Manmohan Singh, accusing them of “trying to divide” the country.
“If you recall earlier governments, the UPA, particularly, the Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi-led governments, who have tried to divide the country, I don’t know if you recall MP Suresh, who is the brother of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. He made that infamous statement that southern states will have to think about whether we should be part of the Indian Union or whether we need to be separate from the Indian Union. How can anybody make such abhorring statements? How can anybody think of turning the clock back? on Article 370, which, in any case, was a temporary provision. And the Congress party is talking about undoing the Ram Temple? A matter of principle for over 500 years. Every Indian holds Prabhu Sri Ram in high esteem,” the Union Minister said.
He further said that during his campaigning in the Mumbai North constituency, people thanked him for the welfare policies laid out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“When I go out campaigning, I find so many people who come up to me and thank me, Thanks to PM Modi, I have water in my home. I go to a village, and I get a young girl child come up and thank me and tell me that you must convey to PM Modi that, thanks to his Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, my tribal family today has a pucca home and we live in dignity. I have people who come up to me and thank me for Pradhan Mantri’s maternity initiatives to support women in maternity and to create funds for the girl child,” he said.
When asked if people during his campaign are showing concerns about whether the Constitution will be changed, which has been touted by the opposition on multiple occasions, Goyal said, “I promise you that in my case, I’ve been campaigning now for nearly two months since the day my name got formally nominated. In the last two months, I promise you, not one person has asked me about any of these subjects. In fact, they feel happy that their hard-earned taxpayer money is being put to good use and corruption is being ended.”
“They’re happy that direct benefit transfer has helped make 11 crore toilets, which has given dignity to our girl child and our sisters, mothers and daughters because they realised that they used to pay all of these taxes earlier,” he added.
Piyush Goyal will face Congress’ Bhushan Patil in the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat. Polling in Mumbai North will take place on May 20 in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s Gopal C Shetty defeated former actor-politician Urmila Matondkar by over 4.65 lakh votes.