Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday lashed out at the Congress over its criticism of him visiting Chief Justice DY Chandrachud’s residence for Ganesh Puja last week, saying Lord Ganesh was put in jail in Karnataka by the party’s government.

PM Modi made the remarks while addressing a rally in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar where he launched the Subhadra Yojana, a women-centric initiative by the Odisha government, and launched railway and national highway projects worth over Rs 3,800 crore in the state. He also laid the foundation stones and dedicated railway projects worth Rs 2,871 crore to the nation.

Here are the top quotes from PM Modi’s address:

Ganesh Utsav is not just a festival of faith for our country. Ganesh Utsav played a very important role in the independence of our country.
When the British were trying to divide the country in their hunger for power, making the country fight on the basis of castes, poisoning the society, divide and rule became their weapon.
Then Lokmanya Tilak awakened the soul of India through the public events of Ganesh Utsav. Our religion teaches us to unite by rising above high and low, discrimination.
Even at that time, the British who followed the policy of divide and rule used to hate Ganesh Utsav. Even today, the power-hungry people who are busy dividing and breaking society are having problems with Ganesh Puja.
You must have seen that the people of Congress and its ecosystem are angry because I participated in Ganesh Puja.
Speaking about Subhadra Yojana, he said women empowerment is the key to the development of Odisha.
In the first 100 hundred days of the NDA government’s third term, steps were taken for the uplift of the poor, farmers and youth along with the empowerment of women.