 "Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi during an election rally at Kasa Stadium in Diphu, Assam")
Congress vice president today continued with his "fair and lovely" jibe to attack the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. Addressing an election rally in Assam’s Karimganj today, he said the one-time disclosure of black money scheme announced in the budget by Union finance minister Arun Jaitely would help “thieves, drug dealers, mafia, terrorists” to convert black money into white.
“During the budget Arun Jaitely gives speech and said he brought a new scheme. We were all eager to know what the new scheme was. He declares a ‘fair and lovely’ scheme of the Indian government, which was aimed at converting black money of thieves into white. Even if you are a drug dealer, mafia, terrorist and if you have black money you can go to the NDA government, they have a new scheme now called the ‘fair and lovely’ scheme and you can ask them to convert black money to white by giving some tax,” the Gandhi scion said.
Gandhi said though he asked Modi questions regarding the ‘fair and lovely’ scheme, the latter avoided replying to him though he chose speaking on sundry other things during his hour long speech. “Next time Modi comes to you seeking votes, ask him who would benefit from the ‘fair and lovely’ scheme. Will the farmers, labourers, poor people, small businessmen will benefit from it. If none are going to benefit, why at all did you bring this scheme,” asked Gandhi.
Gandhi said the confidence of Modi was now at a low and Modi too knew that he had “flopped”. “The confidence that Modi had in initial two to three months in the Parliament is no more there. He has also understood by now that Narendra Modi has flopped,” said Gandhi.
On Modi’s promise to bring back black money stashed in abroad, Gandhi said: “Did anyone of you get Rs 15 lakh that Modi promised to deposit in your bank accounts after winning the 2014 election? Let alone Rs 15 lakh, he did not even give you Rs 15. However, he wears dresses worth Rs 15 lakh.” He added: “On one hand Modi says he would give you all Rs 15 lakh each, but on the other hand they make laws by which thieves can convert black money into white,” he added.
Elaborating to the voters how the erstwhile UPA government helped Assam’s Barak Valley develop, he said: “When there was UPA government at the Centre, we used to send Rs 1,000 crore to Assam through the special status medium. There were 12-14 programmes of ours, by virtue of which you all got money. But Modi, who did not give you Rs 15 lakh, took away your special status back to Delhi. He did not give you Rs 15 lakh, but he took away those Rs 1,000 crore that you got earlier.”
