Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said opposition parties want a weak government at the Centre to serve their vested interests and hide their corruption, adding that such a government cannot fight terror and end it.

“The opposition has been trying to form a weak government to serve their vested interest and to hide their corruption,” Modi said while addressing an election rally in Muzaffarpur parliamentary constituency in Bihar.

Modi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-led NDA will sweep the elections. “Four phases of polls have made it clear that opposition parties are losing, remaining three will determine the scale of their defeat.”

He said that the opposition has no concern about national security and was afraid of speaking against terror.

Modi also taunted the opposition saying: “Many in ‘Mahamilavati’ gang may not win enough seats to help their bigwigs become leader of the opposition, but they are dreaming of Prime Minister’s post.” Modi, without naming the Rashtriya Janata Dal, said that if opposition parties regain strength, lawlessness will be back in Bihar.

Modi on Monday said forces in the country, which believe in dynastic and vote bank politics, censored the national song ‘Vande Mataram’ and neglected the heroes of Azad Hind Fauj who had fought for India’s independence.

Claiming that there is a “perverted trend” of abusing patriotism and nationalist feelings in the country, he said people should be wary of those who think “100 times” before uttering “Vande Mataram” or “Bharat Mata Ki Jai (all hail motherland)”.

“The country is witnessing a perverted mindset to abuse patriotism and nationalist feelings. ‘Vande Mataram’ is a celebration of ‘Maa-Mati-Manush’ (mother-motherland-people) but the song had been censored and tampered with. And now there is a shameless attempt to bury it,” he alleged at an election rally here in Bhatpara under the Barrackpore parliamentary constituency.

Reciting some of the ‘censored’ lines of ‘Vande Mataram’, he said that it is only BJP that has the courage to sing the whole song publicly.

Modi also claimed heroes of India’s freedom struggle were neglected for “vote bank and dynasty politics” before the BJP government took steps to respect to all those who played significant role in the country’s Independence and nation-building.

“It was a memorable moment for me when the National Flag was hoisted in the Red Fort to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Azad Hind government. To respect the contribution of Netaji and Azad Hind Fauj, a ‘Kranti Mandir’ has been built inside the Red Fort.

“We have also paid respect to the other members of the Azad Hind Fauj and made them part of our Republic Day parade in Delhi last year. The Republic Day is being celebrated in the country for decades but none of the he previous governments remembered them,” he alleged.

In a surprise development, the Samajwadi Party on Monday changed its candidate in the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat and fielded ex-BSF trooper Tej Bahadur Yadav against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Samajwadi Party announced the candidature of Tej Bahadur Yadav, a resident of Harayana’s Rewari, who was dismissed from service after he complained about poor quality of food served to the personnel.

Tej Bahadur Yadav said: “Today I filed the nomination papers from Varanasi as Samajwadi Party candidate.” He said that the fight in the Varanasi is now between “a real watchman and a fake watchman.”

“Earlier the party has fielded Shalini Yadav but then Akhileshji (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) gave a thought about whom to field against the fake chowkidaar (watchman).

“The people now have to choose between a real watchman and a fake watchman. Even Akhileshji said that we are standing with the real watchman and not with a person who only believes in rhethoric,” the ex-Border Security Force (BSF) trooper said.

He said that the Aam Aadmi Party will support his candidature in the Lok Sabha polls.

Tej Bahadur Yadav had earlier announced that he will contest as an independent candidate from Varanasi.

The BSF constable was dismissed in 2017 after he posted a video on Facebook complaining about the poor quality of food provided to the security personnel.

Attacking the Modi government, he said: “I was dismissed because I spoke the truth. The parliamentary committee, with Murli Manohar Joshi as its member, submitted the report in Parliament in my favour. Despite that, I was dismissed.”

Varanasi goes to polls on May 19 in the final phase of the seven-stage general elections.

Indo-Asian News Service