BJP Foundation Day: Amit Shah defends animal analogy for Opposition, says party has 'nothing to hide'

Unmoved by the criticism from opposition parties, BJP president Amit Shah on Friday defended his comparison of the rival parties to “snakes”, “mongoose”, “dogs” and “cats” he made earlier in the day while addressing party cadres at the BJP foundation Day rally in Mumbai. Defending his remarks which followed hours after the BJP event, he said, “All parties such as SP, BSP TMC, and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, their ideologies do not match but the fear of Narendra Modi ji is bringing them together, and hence I used the example of snakes, mongooses, cats and dogs fearing the rising floods.” He also re-asserted that BJP has good equations with all its allies and that it will take them together in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections. [caption id=“attachment_4421003” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of BJP president Amit Shah. PTI[/caption] While congratulating lakhs of BJP workers across the nation, Shah in the rally at Mumbai Bandra-Kurla Complex on Friday morning had said, “Our party started with 10 members and today we have more than 11 crore members. Now we are the largest political party in India. BJP has sacrificed the highest number of workers in the history of India’s democracy, I pay homage to all the workers. Bharatiya Janata Party has succeeded in creating an organisational, patriotic and good governing party in its journey of years.” He added that the people of this country have immense faith in BJP and that they will form government again in 2019 with a bigger margin under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However what made headlines were his stinging comments against the Opposition parties by referring to them as “snakes”, “mongoose”, “dogs” and “cats”. To counter the Narendra Modi wave in the country, snakes, cats, and mongooses have all come together to fight a united battle against us in elections, the BJP president had said. He also took a  dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi by saying, “Rahul Gandhi seeks a report of our work in four years. I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that the people of this country seek the report of their work in four generations. When we lost two Lok Sabha seats recently and Rahul Gandhi distributed sweets. He is the first leader I’ve seen who would do this. Today, 20 states are ruled by BJP. This is a thing of joy for the party." In the press conference, Shah accused the Opposition of not allowing the Budget session of Parliament to function. “Budget Session washed out because of Opposition. We were ready to address all issues in the Parliament. It was the Opposition that disrupted the proceedings. Ghulam Nabi Azad, you fix the stage and we’ll be up for debate. We have nothing to hide.” The BJP chief further  asserted that the Modi government will neither scrap the reservation policy nor allow anyone else to do so. His statement comes amid a raging controversy related to the alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act following a Supreme Court ruling. During his speech, he insisted that the Modi government had done a lot for all sections of society and that the BJP will seek to win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on the basis of work done rather than by making “hollow assurances”. “Rahul Gandhi and others are saying that we are demolishing reservation for SCs and STs. We are in no way demolishing the reservation policy,” He went on to add, “Rahul and (NCP chief Sharad) Pawar, listen. BJP will never end the reservation policy. And even if you want to end the reservation, BJP will never allow it.”