“Wondering Whether BJP Will Be Able To Go 200 Paar”: Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that sometimes he wonders whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be able to win even 200 seats in these Lok Sabha elections.

“400 paar slogan was a fantasy when PM Modi first said it. 300 paar is clearly impossible. I am wondering about 200 paar whether they can get or not, as their allies are performing very poorly,” Shashi Tharoor told ANI.

Mr Tharoor further said that there is a need for an agreement on the issue of the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

“If consensus is there, we don’t have any problems, but the problem is, what are you proposing in UCC? There is no draft law. Let them bring a draft law to Parliament. Let it be discussed in the standing committee in detail. Let there be an open discussion in Parliament with all stakeholders,” he said.

Mr Tharoor also held an interactive session with the legal cell of the Himachal Pradesh Congress committee in Shimla.

He said that at the moment, there will be a change of government on June 4. “So we will get more than 272 seats to form the INDIA bloc government,” he said.

Mr Tharoor said that after forming the government, the Congress party and alliance parties will fulfil the promises made to the people of the country.

“We shall fill the government jobs in a time-phased manner, we will do it. The second thing we have promised is the apprenticeship scheme ‘Pahli Naukri Pakki’. We shall make sure that the government gives Rs 8,500 per person per month for a company to hire somebody and train a person in a new skill and a new job. The number of changes that have to be made certain fields have to be much more connected to the industrial real world; ,the academic industry is not more satisfactory, in some universities we have quality of education and in some we will have to improve it, the government has to create and generate the jobs,” Mr Tharoor said.

He further said that the narratives peddled by Prime Minister Narendra are changing each day.

“Mr Modi’s narrative has become increasingly difficult to comprehend He says various things about Muslim community. When he gives interviews, he says anyone who raises Hindu-Muslim issues is not worthy of public office He again raises Hindu-Muslim issues I don’t understand the contradictions in Mr Modi’s statements. Similarly, he says he is not biologically born, I have recently raised a question: there are certain requirements to be a citizen of India. If your parents are Parmatma, how can you be an Indian citizen, and how are you eligible to become the Indian Prime minister. I am not joking; these are certainly strange statements of the Prime Minister,” Mr Tharoor said.

On PM Modi’s remarks that Congress is an enemy of minorities, Mr Tharoor said that Congress and INDIA bloc believe in politics of inclusion.

“There is a new story from PM every day. First, he told us that we wanted to take away everyone’s Mangalsutra and give it to the minorities and now we have become the enemies of minorities. We stand for everybody, INDIA bloc and Congress believe in the politics of inclusion,” Mr Tharoor added further.

Refuting the claims made by Union Minister Anurag Thakur that “Priyanka Gandhi never stood in support of women”, Mr Tharoor said that the BJP does not have a good track record when it comes to defending the rights of women in the country.

“That’s not true, Priyanka Gandhi has been active. You can see going back to Nirbhaya tragedy, all the other things that had happened, she had been a strong voice. I don’t think the BJP has much to say or stand up that they claim to be better at coming up with slogans than us, but they are much worse at actually putting them into action, as we have demonstrated. Let’s look at the Beti Bachao slogan, where do they stand on this? I would like to hear from them about their achievements in addressing violence against women and the misogynistic behavior of their leaders. This party does not have a good track record when it comes to women’s rights in our country.”

The polling for the 2024 general elections in Himachal Pradesh is scheduled to take place in a single phase on June 1. The state of Himachal Pradesh has four Lok Sabha constituencies Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur, and Shimla. In addition to the Lok Sabha elections, by-polls will also be held in six Himachal Pradesh assembly seats on the same day. These seats fell vacant after the disqualification of rebel Congress MLAs.The results for both the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly polls will be announced on June 4.