Diwali fireworks: Congress and BJP in war of slogans in Mumbai | Mumbai News

Mumbai: A war of words erupted between the Congress and the BJP following the distribution of Diwali faral by the latter ahead of the upcoming BMC election. The Congress alleged that the faral packets carried a message reading ‘Batoge to katoge’ (If you get divided, you will get destroyed).Accusing the BJP of using the festival to spread communal hatred, the Congress issued a counter-slogan: ‘Fasoge…phir loot jaoge’ (If you get trapped, you’ll be looted again).

The BJP denied that any batoge-katoge message was printed with the faral, stating that there was nothing wrong in appealing for unity. In turn, the party accused the Congress of indulging in Muslim appeasement politics.Congress city unit president Varsha Gaikwad accused the BJP of promoting politics of hatred based on religion, caste and language instead of focusing on city infrastructure, pollution, water, roads and other issues. She said, “We celebrate Diwali with neighbours without asking about their religion. But BJP is playing politics of hatred by putting the message with faral. Instead of talking about real issues they are engaging in such politics and I urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah to start talking about development and real issues instead of politics of hatred.“Rubbishing Gaikwad’s claim, BJP city unit president Ameet Satam said, “There was no such message with the faral, but there is no wrong in remaining united. Congress itself has played politics of Muslim appeasement since years and they have no moral authority to lecture us.”Gaikwad alleged that the city was facing several problems and there was corruption in the BMC besides several ED investigations, but the ruling parties were not talking about it. She said, “Since the last three years, the BMC issued extraordinary number of tenders and emptied its fixed deposits when there were no elected corporators. The BMC is going into deficit and road work, traffic snarls and so many issues are there, but the ruling parties are avoiding to address those issue and instead are awarding contacts to their favourites.“Satam countered her after stating that the most corruption took place in the BMC during Covid, when the MVA was in power in the state. He said, “Corruption was at its peak in the BMC during the Covid-19 pandemic, fraud was committed in most of the contracts awarded. They were in power and Congress had two ministers in the govt from the city, including Gaikwad, at that point of time. They did nothing, so they should not lecture us on these issues. They didn’t do any work during the period. On the other hand we have competed various public infra works under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.”