PM Modi can't leave his PR exercise even for 5 minutes: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot leave his PR exercise even for five minutes, though the country is faced with a challenging situation following Pulwama terror attack and the aerial strikes by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Pakistan.

Gandhi, who was addressing a public rally here, said: "We had decided to stop criticising the government as we wanted to stand united with all in the country after Pulwama attack. When the Prime Minister addresses the media, he says that India is united, but he attacks the Congress. He cannot even stop his PR activities for at least five minutes. That is the difference between me and him."

 

Sharpening his attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre, Rahul claimed that Prime Minister Modi did not fulfill his promise of giving two crore jobs to the youth of the country and good prices for farmers' produces.

"I have been in politics since 2004. I have been addressing rallies. If I have made any false promise, show it to me. On the contrary, show me a single promise made by Modiji. Anyone can show me this with a video clip to see whether Modi ji did fulfill even one promise or not. This is my challenge," he said.

Raking up the controversial Rafale deal, Gandhi took a jibe at industrialist Anil Ambani. "He could not even make a paper plane," he said, adding that the Prime Minister, who he referred to as 'chowkidaar,' had deposited Rs 30,000 crore in Ambani's pockets.

"We saw in the Parliament that when we raised questions over Rafale, Modi ji could not look into our eyes and answer because he didn't have answers. He kept looking here and there, but didn't give answers to our questions. The watchman is not only a thief, but he is also scared," he claimed.

Alleging that the Prime Minister was dividing the country on the basis of poor and rich, Rahul said: "Modi ji is making two Indias-one is for Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and some 15-20 others. The other India consists of farmers who are committing suicides and small and medium businessmen who are suffering."

"Modi ji waives off the loans of Nirav Modi, Ambani and others but not of the farmers. When we came to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, our government waived off farmers' loans in just five days," he said.

Talking about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation, Gandhi said: "Foreign companies are making profits whereas Indian shopkeepers are suffering because of GST, which I refer to as Gabbar Singh Tax."

"If demonetisation was a fight against black money, why only common man had to stand outside ATMs for hours? Have you ever seen Ambani, Nirav Modi, Choksi, and others standing in lines for money," Rahul said.

Further taking a jibe at Prime Minister Modi for not calling press conferences during his nearly five-year tenure, Rahul threw a challenge to sit in front of him and debate on corruption.

He further said if the Congress comes to power this year, his government will deposit the money under the minimum guaranteed income into every poor person's account.