Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge attacked the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing them of trying to take away the voting rights of the women in India.

He dubbed Modi’s guarantees as fake, meant only to conjure up votes and never to be realised.

Addressing a substantial public gathering in Dehradun on Sunday, Kharge alleged that the Narendra Modi Government at the Center is working towards taking away voting rights of the women in India given to them post-independence by the first prime minister of India Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and father of Indian constitution Dr BR Ambedkar.

“Initially, women had no voting rights. While some got it 100 years ago, others got it 75 years and some others 200 years earlier, no nation in the world had constitutional voting rights for women, but here Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar thought of universal adult franchise. Women have the same rights as men. Now, they (the BJP) are trying to take away that voting power. They are snatching away voting rights of our mothers and sisters, who are 51 per cent of our population, by bringing back Manu.”

Kharge asked the people of Uttarakhand, “Did anyone give women’s rights in the past? Was it in place before the Independence? You became powerful. Those who you vote to form the government. How was this possible?”

Playing an emotional card with the people, the Congress president said, “This power was bestowed on you by us, our party, and our leaders. Now, you want to weaken the party that gave you this power. You want to keep that party out of power by voting for those who are not doing anything. They will drown the country.”

Kharge asked the BJP, “Where are the Modi government’s most-talked-about guarantees on his promises to give Rs 15 lakh to the people, double the farmers’ income and provide two crore jobs? Not to fulfill their promises is all the Modi’s guarantees are about.”

He told the voters of Uttarakhand, “If you vote for people like them, I will not shy away from saying you are unfaithful to the nation.”

Kharge appealed to the people of Uttarakhand not to vote for those who failed to do justice to the 19-year-old Ankita Bhandari who was allegedly killed by a former RSS leader. “They have failed to bring the killers of Ankita Bhandari to justice. Rather the Uttarakhand government is hand in gloves with the perpetrators. We don’t know how many more such killers have taken so far” he added.

Taking a dig at the prime minister, Kharge alleged that “he wants to become the eleventh incarnation of lord Vishnu”.

Kharge further alleged that Modi and the RSS have no other work but to abuse Congress leaders. “Modi and RSS leaders start abusing Congress leaders the moment they get up in the morning. They persistently dream of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi. But Rahul Gandhi is giving them sleepless nights these days” he added.