- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The tailor reportedly had received threats for supporting Nupur Sharma, a former spokesperson of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party who had made controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday (2) launched a scathing attack on the Ashok Gehlot government of the north-western state of Rajasthan, raising the horrific murder of a tailor in the historical city of Udaipur. The state is set to go to polls later this year.
Referring to the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, the tailor whose throat was slit by some persons who apparently went to his shop to get clothes stitched in June last year, Modi asked, “What happened in Udaipur, had someone even imagined something like this could happen?”
The tailor reportedly had received threats for supporting Nupur Sharma, a former spokesperson of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who had made controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad, sparking a massive row both in India and abroad. Two persons visited Lal’s shop as customers and brutally killed him and recorded the video and bragged about the crime. They also shared the footage online.
Modi was in Chittorgarh in Rajasthan on Monday after laying a foundation stone for projects worth Rs 7,000 crore.
Eyeing his party’s return in the state where it lost power in 2018, the prime minister said the state’s ruling Indian National Congress formed a government by misleading people and accused it of failing to run the state properly. He accused chief minister Gehlot of being busy saving his chair. The Congress in Rajasthan has faced a serious infighting in the recent past, particularly between the camps of Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, whose rebellion almost toppled the former’s government a few years ago.
Claiming Gehlot has already “accepted defeat”, Modi said the state government is requesting the BJP, which is in power in New Delhi, not to stop schemes.
“I assure that no public scheme will be stopped. BJP will not stop any public scheme but try to improve it, this is Modi’s guarantee,” he said.
Last week, Gehlot asked the BJP to guarantee that his government’s schemes in the state would not be discontinued if it comes to power after this year’s election.
Speaking about the speculation that the central leadership of the BJP will pick a chief ministerial face in the state as the party is reportedly facing factionalism between the camps of leaders such as Vasundhara Raje and Gajendra Singh Sekhawat, Modi said ‘kamal’ (BJP’s election symbol) is the party’s face and candidate and they will work to make the lotus win.
The prime minister also slammed the Gehlot government over Rajasthan’s law-and-order question saying the Congress had made crimes against women a tradition in the state.
While Modi’s BJP looks favourite to win next year’s national elections, the party is desperate to deliver in the state elections scheduled this year, particularly after losing Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka to the rival Congress in less than a year.
