Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused RJD president Lalu Prasad of attempting to “save” those who set fire to over sixty kar sevaks “during the rule of Sonia madam,” bringing up the 2002 Godhra train arson. Speaking at an election rally in Darbhanga, north Bihar, Modi recalled the incident that happened during his tenure as Gujarat’s chief minister and claimed that the opposition parties were always engaging in “appeasement” politics.

“After all, it was the rule of Sonia madam,” Modi said, referring to the UPA chairperson, “because of this appeasement politics that the father of Bihar’s’shehzada’ (allusion to Tejashwi Yadav) had tried to save those who were responsible for the Godhra train burning incident.” “He (Lalu Prasad), who has been convicted in fodder scam cases, was then the Railway Minister. He formed an inquiry committee and commissioned a report that exonerated those responsible for the heinous crime. But the court threw the report out,” Modi stated.

Darbhanga, Bihar: “When the Kar Sevaks were burnt alive in Godhra, the Railway Minister, who is serving his sentence and is out on bail, had formed a committee of Supreme Court judges to save the culprits and made such a report that those culprits should be acquitted, but the… pic.twitter.com/vwRQdnF47D
— IANS (@ians_india) May 4, 2024

Modi accused opposition parties of “trying to rob” SCs, STs, and tribals of reservations as a result of their “disillusionment” with the INDIA bloc. “The INDIA bloc is attempting to divert reservations to Muslims. They are going against the views of Babasaheb Ambedkar and the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, neither of whom supported religious reservations,” Modi claimed.

In addition, he criticised Tejashwi Yadav for bringing up the “Hindu Muslim narrative” during speeches about the Agnipath scheme. He asked, “Do we think of Captain Hameed as a Muslim when we talk about his martyrdom?”

He declared, “There is a shehzada in Delhi and one in Patna, both of whom think of the country as their fiefdom (jaagir),” without specifically mentioning Tejashwi Yadav or Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “When they questioned the surgical strikes and disparaged the armed forces, their mentality was made clear,” Modi stated.