Mandla :Coming down heavily on the Congress in general and erstwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in particular, Union Home Affairs and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday accused the former leader of remaining a mute spectator – in the face of terrorist attacks by Pakistan – and adopting a minorities appeasement policy.

“The United Progressive Alliance’s scam-ridden tenure witnessed frequent incidents perpetrated by militants. Pak-sponsored extremists decapitated our soldiers! However, while staging the Uri and Pulwama assaults, the ultras forgot that ‘Mauni Baba Manmohan’ was no longer occupying the saddle.

Within days, a surgical strike was executed and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a crystal-clear message that the Indian border and the Indian Army should not be touched,” the visiting leader said while flagging off the BJP’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra in this town of election-bound Madhya Pradesh.

Recalling the then Prime Minister Singh’s statement that minorities enjoyed the first claim on the country’s resources, Mr Shah said that those words were met with widespread protests but Dr Singh refused to relent.

“During ‘economist’ Manmohan’s tenure, India remained at 11th position among global economies. The Congress aired hollow slogans vis-à-vis safeguarding people’s rights to water, forests and land.

The Scheduled Tribes’ budgetary component was a mere Rs 24,000 crore per annum. The Congress ruled for decades but never elevated a tribal son or daughter to the nation’s highest constitutional office,” the Minister underlined.

In this state’s context, he accused the Congress of making it Bimaru.

“Bring to mind Shrimaan Bantadhaar Digivjaya Singh’s rule when the condition of roads was abysmal, there was a power paucity, neither proper dwellings nor security for women. You also witnessed Kamal ‘Corruption’ Nath’s reign when in excess of 50 poverty-welfare schemes were placed on the backburner, the Chief Minister’s Office converted into a lucre-collection centre, hundreds of senior bureaucrats transferred and the promise of agrarian debt waiver remained unfulfilled,” he added.

During his 27-minute-long speech, Mr Shah touched on milestones crossed by the Modi dispensation vis-à-vis G20, welfare of cultivators and tribes, water supply, health, free grain, vaccination, cooking gas, housing, poverty alleviation and improving India’s global image.