Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday ssaid the BJP was against waiving off loans of farmers and disadvantaged sections of the society, while when it comes to the industrialists, it showed an opposite view.
"We fight for the rights of the poor and farmers. In the last ten years, we have run a government and we waived 70000 crores of farm loans. Whenever a farmer goes to the bank, he doesn't get any benefit, while if an industrialist goes to the bank, he immediately gets a loan. When we try to help the poor and waive aside their loans, the opposition, which is promoting an India Shinning campaign, says it is a wasteful exercise," Gandhi said.
The Congress vice-president further stated that, "we have given benefit to crores of people with the help of MGNREGA. We have guaranteed food for all with the help of the food security bill. They say food security is not right, but giving free of cost land to industrialists is. Today, farmers get a land price which is more than four times than what they used to get."
Rahul said that in 2004 the BJP came up with a India Shinning campaign and lost. The same happened again in 2009. Once they win elections, the poor will be shunned, while a few industrialists will benefit.
On the issue of women security he punched holes on the BJP's claim of giving security to them.
"The Gujarat chief minister allows phone tapping of women, and then, in posters of the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, it calls for empowering women. At the same time, one must know that a minister in Karnataka when the BJP used to govern was involved in rape," Gandhi said.
He also said that if there is a UPA 3, then the people will get three more rights that will help them the most.
"We have lifted 15 crore people out of poverty. In 2014, when we win elections and the UPA 3 comes, I will tell what we will do, we will give you three more rights. We understand your plight, hence we will give you a right to health. We want that your child gets guaranteed medicine and gets admitted in hospitals. When there's rain, the poor faces the brunt as water drips from his roof, we want to give you a permanent roof that will ensure an end to this problem. Again, we will give a right to pension to old people. Even if the BJP says that there is a wastage of money, we will still continue to give you the welfare schemes," Gandhi said.
"We want to lift 70 crore people into the middle class.We want to see that their children study in well established schools and colleges. We have prepared an industrial corridor. Hence, we have created industrial corridors so that youth of Chhattisgarh get jobs," Gandhi added.
