“My secularism not vote bank politics”—Modi

BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi while addressing a huge rally in Lucknow said the Muslims are nothing more than vote bank for the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party that shout from the rooftops about secularism. “While the number of applicants for the annual Haj Yatra subsidy far outstrips the available quota, while Uttar Pradesh, with its 32,000-strong quota for the Haj travel sees barely about 35,000 applicants every year. If Muslims were better off more of them would apply,” he said. That opens up the floodgates—he has a comparison between ‘their secularism’ and ‘our secularism’. While the so-called secular parties believe secularism is a vote bank, ours believes in India first; he says. “Theirs believes in divide and rule, ours is to join people. Theirs is an election slogan, for us it is an article of faith,” Modi added.