BJP intensifies 'Muslim quota' attack on Congress, cites Manmohan Singh's 2019 remarks

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday launched another attack on Congress, asserting its earlier claim that 'preferential treatment to Muslims is a clear policy of the opposition party.'
Tweeting a video of Manmohan Singh, BJP wrote at the start of Phase two of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections that in 2009, the former Prime Minister said that minorities should get priority when it comes to the nation's resources.
"April 2009: In the run up to Lok Sabha election, Dr Manmohan Singh, reiterated his statement that minorities, especially poor Muslims, should get priority when it comes to the nation’s resources. He categorically stated that he stood by his earlier assertion that Muslims should have first right when it comes to resources," BJP wrote on X.
"This unequivocal assertion by Dr Manmohan Singh demolishes the Congress’ canards and clarifications on his previous statement. It supports our assertion that preferential treatment to Muslims is a clear policy of the Congress Party.
"This is further proof of the Congress mindset to give preference to Muslims in everything, from reservation to resources," they added.

This comes after PM Modi fired the 'Muslim quota' salvo while addressing a rally at Tonk-Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan - his last engagement in the state for Lok Sabha polls - and said Congress has for long made separate efforts to implement Muslim quota despite the prohibition laid down on 'Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution' on religion-based reservations.
The attack came even as Congress was still angrily protesting against PM's remark at Banswara, also in Rajasthan, on Sunday that Congress's pitch for "redistribution of assets" was part of a plan to take away assets from people and distribute among people who, going by his predecessor Manmohan Singh's 2006 speech at the National Development Council, can only be Muslims.
While Election Commission has started an inquiry into Congress's complaint that that Banswara speech was communal and, therefore, violative of the 'model code of conduct', PM Modi repeated the charge and rebutted Congress's protest about Singh's statement having been distorted, saying, "I was present at the meeting of the NDC."