Not a single intruder will be allowed in India: BJP chief

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, who is on a visit to Madhya Pradesh, said yesterday the country comes first for the party and no intruders will be allowed in India.
In his address to party workers at the Dussehra Maidan in Indore, Shah slammed opposition parties, saying that they support the intruders for political gains but for the BJP the country comes first. This is why the intruders are being identified in several states across the country.
Taking a jibe at the Congress, Shah said those questioning the BJP-led government on its four-year rule should first give an account of their four-decade rule.
“In the last four years, the BJP has worked for the benefits to reach every section of the society,” he said.
While he was welcomed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other leaders, several people came out on to the streets shouting slogans against Shah. They have been protesting against the amendment to the SC/ST Act.
Police arrested the protesters, among whom were members of the Karni Sena and Swarn Samaj.
Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who too is on a visit to Madhya Pradesh to support protesting landless poor who are marching towards Delhi, attacked the ruling BJP for being pro-industrialists.
“The present government is partial towards 15 industrialists. For the past four-and-a-half years the government has waived off loans worth Rs3 lakh crore for the industrialists, the same should be done for the farmers,” Gandhi said while addressing a gathering at a stadium in Morena district.
He also promised the farmers that their loans would be waived off if the Congress comes power.
Earlier, on his arrival in Gwalior, Gandhi was welcomed by state Congress chief Kamal Nath, election campaign committee head Jyotiraditya Scindia and other leaders. He then left for Morena by helicopter, according to party sources.
The landless poor have been marching towards Delhi since Thursday. They have so far covered a distance of 36km.
In other developments, Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal asserted that the BJP would return to power with over 300 seats in next year’s Lok Sabha elections and that the party-led alliance would secure a two-thirds majority.
Slamming Gandhi, the minister said, “We are working in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of India that Congress should wind up shop. On one hand, we will make India Congress mukt (free), and on the other, we will make it Poverty Mukt.”
His remarks came soon after Gandhi accused the government of “waging war on Indians” and imposing a “suffocating ideology” on them.
“It (Modi government) wants to impose one singular suffocating memory on our 1.3bn people,” said Gandhi in his scathing attack, adding that “rupee is on its knees, petrol at an all-time high, the stock market imploded, Rs12 lakh crore in NPAs and unemployment is at a 20-year high”.
Goyal said, “For more than 48 years of our 71 years of independence, we have had one family rule this country. The Congress has ruled it for almost six out of the seven decades.”
Asked about the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government losing the narrative amid crisis like surging oil prices and a depreciating rupee, Goyal said, “Absolutely not. The people of India are smart and are watchful of what a government does when times are good and when times are bad.”