Chandigarh: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday launched a scathing attack on the opposition Congress and held that it insulted Dalit leaders like Kumari Selja and Ashok Tanwar.

Shah, who held two rallies at Tohana and Jagadhari towns of poll-bound Haryana to campaign for party candidates, also hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his alleged remarks on reservations and asserted that if there is anyone who could protect the quota, it is only Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking on the previous Congress government, Shah went on to further allege that the government jobs were given only on the basis of "kharchi’’ (bribe) or "parchi’’ (favouritism), while during the past 10-year rule of BJP, the jobs have been given on merit basis and in a transparent manner.

In a veiled attack on another opposition party - Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) Shah said that before 2014 when BJP took over, there used to be rule of two parties – one used to unleash corruption, meaning Congress, and the other to unleash hooliganism, meaning INLD.

In the rule under both the parties, nepotism and casteism were at its peak, but the work of freeing Haryana from nepotism and casteism has been done by the BJP government and it has also done the work of building a network of roads at a cost of Rs 3,700 crore in the state and 51 other development projects worth Rs 47,000 crores have been completed.

Shah also launched an aggressive offensive against Congress and accused it of being responsible for the atrocities on dalits in Haryana. "The Gohana incident took place in Haryana during the rule of the Congress party, the Mirchpur incident took place in 2010, for which the Congress party is solely responsible’’, he alleged.

Without naming Priyanka Gandhi's husband Robert Vadra, the senior BJP leader Shah further alleged that Congress had always sold the land of farmers at throwaway prices and done huge corruption to please the "son-in-law’’ of Delhi. But BJP worked to end the "government of dealers and son-in-law’’.

Seeking an apology to Sikhs from Rahul Gandhi, the Union home minister said that Haryana is a state connected to Punjab and here Sikh Gurus are respected and worshipped in every house. But Rahul Gandhi says that Sikhs in India do not have the freedom to wear turbans and kadas, symbols of Sikhism. "Congress is only spreading confusion among the public and Congress party and Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the Sikh community’’, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the Haryana election co-incharge Biplab Deb alleged Congress and "Indi Alliance’’ (INDIA) are doing politics of lies and deceit. Rahul Gandhi's statement of ending reservation for SC/ST during his recent US tour, proved that the Congress party is an anti-Dalit party.