 "Lok Sabha polls: Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Modi, calls him instrument of rich")
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of helping a few rich businessmen in the country.
Gandhi also attacked Modi over the electoral bond issue, terming it as a form of extortion where the intimidatory tactics are "much more sophisticated" as central agencies like the CBI, ED and Income Tax Department are deployed against the targeted businessmen.
"There are some people in every small town or village who extort money on the streets by threatening physical harm. In malayalam you call this extortion 'kolla adikkal' (loot), but Modi calls it electoral bonds. What a common thief is doing on the streets, the PM is doing at an international level," he alleged.
Gandhi accused the BJP-led central government of using "sophisticated" tactics to threaten targeted businessmen.
"At the electoral bond level, the threats are much more sophisticated. The ED, CBI and Income Tax people will come, they will interrogate and at the end of it, they will say why don't you give this (their business) to Adani," the sitting Congress MP from Wayanad LS constituency alleged.
He alleged that this is how Adani got the Mumbai airport from its previous owner.
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In other instances, such intimidatory tactics also led to the businessman paying the BJP in electoral bonds, he also alleged.
He raised the electoral bond issue by referring to a recent interview of Modi.
"In his interview, he was trying to defend the biggest corruption scandal on the planet -- the electoral bond scheme through which the BJP got thousands of crores of rupees by extorting India's businessmen," Gandhi alleged while speaking to party supporters, workers and the huge crowd that turned up for his roadshow from Kodiyathur in Kozhikode district.
Later in Wayanad, Gandhi alleged that Modi "does not have the understanding to run the country".
While speaking to the public in Wayanad, the Congress leader also mocked the PM for his statements asking people to bang steel utensils and switch on their mobile phone lights during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier in Kodiyathur, Gandhi alleged that Modi's job was also to distract people from the real issues in the country, protect the richest businessmen in India and "forgive their bank loans".
Modi is helping "five or six of the biggest, richest businessmen" in India, he alleged.
He claimed that Modi has given around Rs 16 lakh crores to 20-25 people in the country.
"But he does not talk of the issues farmers are facing in the country, the unemployment or the price rise," Gandhi said
The Congress leader said that since Modi was giving away money to a few rich people in the country, his party has decided to give money to the poor when it comes to power.
He promised to give Rs one lakh per annum to one woman from every poor family in the country and his government will frame a law that will make it mandatory to provide one year paid internships or apprenticeships to every graduate or diploma holder in the country.
Under the proposed law, the interns and apprentices will get Rs one per year for their one year of training in their chosen field in the public or private sector or PSUs.
Gandhi also accused the BJP and the RSS of trying to destroy and change the Constitution and said that this was the only big issue of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and all other issues emanated from it.
Referring to the problems of night traffic ban, human-animal conflict and lack of a medical college faced by the people of Wayanad, he said that he was fully committed to ensuring that these three things happen.
Gandhi said that he personally as well as the Congress and the UDF have exerted pressure on the Kerala CM and ruling Left government in the state on the medical college issue, "but somehow they keep delaying it".
"If the Left government is not ready to do it, then when the UDF government comes to power in Kerala, which it will soon, it will do it," he assured.
The Congress leader took out a massive road show from Kodiyathur here around 11.30 am as part of his ongoing campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the southern state and was accompanied by hundreds of party workers and supporters who ran alongside and ahead of the vehicle carrying him.
He intermittently sat atop the SUV or stood out of its sun roof constantly waving at the public gathered in large numbers on both sides of the road.
Party workers and supporters accompanying him carried placards with his photo.
Gandhi, who is hoping to win again from Wayanad, came to the constituency on April 15 for the second time after the date of the Lok Sabha polls were announced.
The Congress leader had kicked off the poll campaign in Wayanad early this month by filing his nomination papers and holding a massive road show.
He had won from Wayanad with a record margin of 4,31,770 votes during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Polling in Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats will be held on April 26.