Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today took a swipe at Narendra Modi saying the Gujarat development model, touted by the BJP prime ministerial nominee, is synonymous with 'toffee model' and 'Adani model'.
"By taking 45,000 acre of fertile land of farmers, Modi gave it to the Adani company for a paltry sum of Rs 1 per sq metre," Gandhi alleged during an election meeting here.
"Due to largesses showered on Adani by Modi in Gujarat, the company's finance rose from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore now, which is more than the budget of MGNREGA," he claimed.
More From This Section
"He spent all his shakti keeping track of the movement of a woman and now he is talking of providing power to women," Gandhi said.
Referring to Modi's claim that the Congress did nothing since Independence, Gandhi reminded him that that US President Barack Obama had said that his country feared only China and India.
Listing MGNREGA, Right to Food law, land acquisition legislation, he said that the Congress sought a mandate to enact three more legislations.
These were free medicare including cost of medicine and provision for operation, right to a concrete roof for poor and pension for the elderly. These three vital areas of concern, he said, he gathered after talks with rickshaw-pullers, coolies and other groups.
He spoke about building a Japanese financed industrial corridor which would provide employment opportunities to the youth.
"Our dream is that instead of using shoes, watches, T-shirts with the made-in-China-tag, we will have these items with made in Bihar or made in Gopalganj tags," he said.
Attacking the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he said "Your CM had told you to provide employment, but did you get employment?"
He also accused Bihar government of failing to properly utilise central funds for the welfare of the poor.
"A sum of Rs 6,000 crore is lying with the state for sugarcane development but it has not reached farmers," he claimed.
Gandhi said that the people had demanded an airport at Gopalganj which his party's future government would try to fulfill.