As for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims at election rallies held in various parts of the country between April 21 and 25 last week, Scroll’s fact-checking revealed that he has been continuously lying against the Congress during this period by diffusion?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally in Rajasthan. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/@BJP4Rajasthan)
New Delhi: Scroll fact-checked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims in various parts of the country last week, saying that Modi lied a lot in these rallies. These claims were made between April 21 and April 25.
April 21, Banswara
Entitlement: Prime Minister Modi claimed that the Congress manifesto said it would investigate, confiscate and distribute (among Muslims) the personal property of married Hindu women, including mangalsutras. He said: “Sleep in the lives of my mothers and sisters is not just for show, it has to do with their self-esteem. Mangalsutra is associated with their life dreams, in your manifesto you talk about taking them away.’
reality: There is no mention of the confiscation of personal property in the congressional election program, there is far from confiscation after Tuesday.
Entitlement: Modi claimed that the previous Congress government had said that Muslims had the first right to the country’s property.
reality: Here in 2009, Modi twisted the words of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh at that time spoke about the need for development of all disadvantaged groups including not only religious minorities but also Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, women and children.
Entitlement: Modi claimed that the Congress will collect your wealth and divide it between “infiltrators” and “those who have more children” – here he was referring to Muslims.
reality: There is no real basis that Muslims are “infiltrators” – the Modi government has repeatedly told Parliament that it has no data on illegal immigrants. The birth rate of Indian Muslims, though higher than that of Hindus, is declining faster than that of all other communities. Besides, reproduction is a matter of economics, not religion. Muslims in the more developed Tamil Nadu have fewer children than Hindus in the impoverished state of Bihar.
April 22, Aligarh
Entitlement: Modi repeated the same false claim that the Congress manifesto talks about survey and confiscation of private property. He said, “The Congress prince (Congress leader Rahul Gandhi) is saying that if his government comes, he will look into who earns how much, who has how much property, who has how many houses.” Not only that, they go on to say that the government will take over these properties and distribute them to everyone. This is what their manifesto says.’
reality: It is not mentioned in the Congress manifesto. Releasing the manifesto on April 6, Rahul Gandhi said, “We will take an X-ray of the country. Backward classes, Dalits, Adivasis, general class poverty and minorities will know how much their share is in the country. “However, he did not say that the party would confiscate and give away private property.
Entitlement: Congress will go so far as to say that if you have an old ancestral house in the village, you have taken a small apartment in the city for the future of the children. And if it is discovered that you also have a house in the village, one of the two will be taken away from you. You don’t need two. Whoever does not have it, it will be given to him. People at the congress will say that you already have a house in the village. This is Maoist thinking…? Congress wants to get into your hard earned money and your assets. Women want to return wealth.
reality: The only reference to partition in the congress manifesto is; “Congress shall establish an authority to supervise the distribution of public land and surplus land to the poor under the Land Sale Act.” This is hardly a revolutionary new promise, as 21 states in India already have land-closure laws, which were introduced in the 1960s to address the country’s historic inequality in land ownership.
April 23, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur
Entitlement: Lifting the X-ray reference from Rahul Gandhi’s speech, Modi said, “If you leave something in your house in a millet box, it will also be X-rayed. If you have excess property, it will be confiscated and distributed among the people. If you have two houses, one will be x-rayed by the government.
reality: There is no mention of confiscation and distribution of houses by the government either in the Congress manifesto or in the speeches of its leaders.
Entitlement: In the same speech, Modi again repeated the earlier false claim that “Manmohanji said that Muslims have the first right to the country’s resources”.
reality: The above speech by Manmohan Singh is available in the Prime Minister’s Office Archives. The Prime Minister’s Office also said at the time that the Prime Minister’s “context of first right to resources” is SC, ST, OBC, women, children and is interested in improving the status of minorities.
Singh made his speech a month after a report by a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Rajinder Sachar. The report showed the extent to which Muslims in India lag behind other communities in terms of education, income and employment.
April 24, Sagar
Entitlement: Modi alleged that the Congress had orchestrated reservation on the basis of religion in Karnataka through illegal means. “He put all Muslims under the OBC quota and took away a large portion of OBC reservation and gave it to them on the basis of religion.”
reality: In 1962, the Congress government in Karnataka included some castes of the Muslim community as OBCs, not on the basis of religion, but on the recommendation of the R. Naganagowda Commission. Much earlier, the Maharaja of Mysore had started the reservation policy for Muslims in 1921.
Later, in 1994, the HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) government included the entire Muslim community in Karnataka in the OBC list and created a 4 percent sub-quota for them. The Janata Dal (Secular) is currently an ally of the BJP.
Karnataka is one of the 14 states and union territories where Muslim communities have been included in the OBC list on the basis of social and economic backwardness.
Gujarat, where Modi was chief minister for 12 years, also has a Muslim community in the OBC category. In an interview to ANI two years ago, Modi had claimed that 70 Muslim castes in the state would get the benefit of reservation.
April 24, Sergya
Entitlement: Modi said, “Years ago, the Congress tried to provide reservation on the basis of religion in Andhra Pradesh and planned to implement it across the country. He talked about 15% reservation based on religion. She was also asked to reduce the SC/ST/OBC quota and provide reservations to some people on the basis of religion. The Congress expressed this intention in its election manifesto in 2009. Even in its manifesto of 2014, it clearly said that it will never give up on this issue.”
reality: The Congress government of Andhra Pradesh passed a law in 2005 to grant 5% reservation to Muslims. When the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional, it said that religion cannot be “the sole basis for declaring any class of citizens socially backward.”
In its 2009 manifesto, the Congress said it was committed to providing reservations to minorities on the basis of their “social and economic backwardness”.
In its 2014 manifesto, the Congress said: ‘Reservation in education and employment for economically weaker sections of all communities without in any way affecting the existing reservation for all Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes determined to find a way to start.’
The party’s 2019 manifesto was silent on the matter, while the 2024 manifesto said: “We will ensure that minorities have access to education, health care, employment, public works contracts, skills development, sports and receive fair participation in cultural activities without discrimination.”
Entitlement: In the same speech, Modi reiterated the claim that the Congress had introduced religion-based quotas in Karnataka. He said, “When the BJP government came there, we reversed the decision taken by the Congress against the constitution and the spirit of Baba Sahib Ambedkar and restored their rights to Dalits, Adivasis and backward classes.”
reality: In March 2023, the BJP government in Karnataka scrapped the 4 percent sub-quota for Muslim OBCs, but did not allocate the quota for Dalits and Adivasis. It preferred to transfer these quotas to the dominant communities of the state, the Lingayats and the Vokkaligaon. The Supreme Court stayed the order in April 2023, saying it was “prima facie wrong”.
Entitlement: Modi made another claim, “Now the Congress is saying that it will tax inheritance and also tax inheritance from parents. The wealth you build up with your hard work will not be given to your children, but the claw of the Congress government will take it away from you too.”
reality: There is no mention of it in the Congress manifesto. It simply says: ‘We will address rising wealth and income inequality through appropriate policy changes.’ US-based former Congress adviser Sam Pitroda said the inheritance tax was an “interesting idea”, but the party formally distanced itself from his comments.
April 24, Betul
Entitlement: Modi alleged that Congress wants to take away reservation from SC, ST and OBC groups and give it to ‘Khas Khas’ or special vote bank. He reiterated the demand for reservations against Muslims and said the Congress planned to confiscate and distribute personal property to “strengthen its vote bank”.
reality: The Congress manifesto neither talks about reservation on the basis of religion nor about redistribution of wealth.
Entitlement: Modi again raised the inheritance tax issue and alleged that the Congress was lying and said it was just the “personal opinion” of Sam Patroda. Even in 2011, Congress advocated this tax.
reality: In 2011, then Home Minister P Chidambaram mooted the idea of an inheritance tax. But Congress is not alone in considering it. In 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Modi government also expressed this idea.
April 25, Agra
Entitlement: Modi alleged that the Congress was planning to steal a part of the 27% OBC quota to ensure reservation on the basis of religion.
reality: There is no mention of reservation on the basis of religion in the Congress manifesto.
Entitlement: Modi claimed that the Congress plans to confiscate 55 percent of the wealth before it reaches family members, then argued that “more than half of the wealth that you pass on to your next generation, they want to return that tax by planting”.
reality: There is no mention of it in the Congress manifesto. He also distanced himself from Sam Pitroda’s comments.
April 25, Marina
Entitlement: Modi claimed, “When Indira Gandhi died and her son Rajiv Gandhi was supposed to inherit her property, the money did not go to the government, so to protect his property, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced inheritance tax. ‘
Reality: What was abolished in 1985 by the then finance minister VP Singh was the wealth tax on the estate of the deceased, not the inheritance tax.
April 25, Anola
Entitlement: This time, Modi claimed, “Not only economic but Congress also intends to conduct a survey of institutions and offices. That is, if there are two people in a backward Dalit family, by taking away one job, these people, who according to the Congress have the first right to the country’s resources, will give it to them.
reality: Neither in its manifesto nor in its leaders’ speeches did the Congress talk about taking away jobs from backward class or dalit families. The party manifesto said, “The Congress will conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste-based census to enumerate the castes and sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions. Based on the data, we will strengthen the positive action agenda.”
(This news was published on Scroll)
