Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has fire-bombed the poor and taken the blood out of the veins of 99 per cent of Indians with its demonetisation decision.
At a rally in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi stopped people from hurling invectives against Modi, saying he is the Prime Minister and "we must not say 'murdabad' for anyone".
He said the Congress would have helped in any move of the government to weed out corruption and black money from India, but "the decision on demonetisation was neither against corruption, nor against black money".
"During World War II, there was a new technique of bombing people -- fire bombs were dropped on a city by 200 planes, and city would be burnt to ashes. Modi has fire-bombed the poor of the country," said Gandhi.
He said: "We want to root out corruption from India. If the government takes any decisions against corruption, we will fully support it."
The Congress leader said the November 8 announcement to spike nearly 86 per cent of the country's total currency in circulation "was against the poor and the farmers of India".
"It is against 99 per cent people of India, against farmers and labourers. Without seeking their permission, Modi has taken blood out of their veins."
As Gandhi began his speech at the public rally, some people from among the crowd shouted slogans against Modi.
Gandhi asked them not to do that. "We have differences of opinion with Modi and the BJP. Do not use the word 'murdabad'... Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister. Political fight is there.
"That is for the RSS people to say, not for us."
"Modiji, you have destroyed the brass industry of Moradabad, leather industry of Kanpur, and carpet industry of Mirzapur," he added.
Further hitting out at Modi, Gandhi said: "The farmer doesn't use cheque, Paytm and credit card to buy seeds, he uses cash. You have ruined his life."
Gandhi also said that Modi has given a toffee worth Rs 1,200 crore to liquor baron Vijay Mallya (referring to the write-off).
He went on to say that the aim behind fire-bombing the poor was to waive off Rs 8 lakh crore loans of the rich.
"About 50 families in our country took Rs 8 lakh crore loan. Modiji will use your money to waive off the loans of at least 50 families. Members of these families accompany Modiji to the US and China," he said.
"People said demonetisation was a good idea, but there was no planning. But I feel the planning was fantastic. His intention was to use the money of 99 per cent Indians to waive off loans of the rich," Gandhi said.
"Modiji said notes were banned to stop terrorism. But couple of days later, new 2,000-rupee notes were found on the gunned-down terrorists," he added.
--IANS
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