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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over a host of issues. Ridiculing Modi's Make in India campaign, Gandhi said, “Even Modi’s Rs 10-lakh suit was made in the UK.”
Rebutting the BJP on the Jayanthi Natarajan Controversy, Gandhi stated he had told the former environment minister to protect the interests of tribals and the poor. Attacking Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, Gandhi alleged the former was tall on promises and short on delivery.
Addressing a rally at Jahangirpuri on Wednesday, Gandhi said it was Modi who had set up Jayanthi Natarajan against him, the day after he had attacked Modi at the party’s Seelampur rally for his Rs 10-lakh suit.
"I want to tell you that I have fought for the poor and the adivasis and I had told Jayanthi Natarajan that we should look into the welfare of the environment, poor and the adivasis. I will continue to fight for the poor, the downtrodden and the weaker sections," said Gandhi. The Congress always worked for the poor unlike Modi whose government was for the “benefit” of a handful of industrialists.
He said despite the fall in prices of crude oil, the benefits were not being passed on to the common man. “It is the three or four industrialist friends of Modi who are benefiting from the decline in crude oil prices,” claimed Gandhi.
Attacking the BJP for its divisive politics, he reminded the audience of how every Assembly polls were preceded by a communal riot.
“On the one hand they talk of development, on the other hand they will fuel fights to get political power," he said.
Accusing AAP of being “agents” of the BJP, Gandhi questioned why the AAP had not protested in the past seven months against price rise, women security and hike in electricity prices ever since the BJP came to power.
Gandhi said, "The maximum corruption in this country is related to land." Unlike the AAP and the BJP, which merely did lip service to corruption, Gandhi said "We stood with farmers, waged a battle and got the Land Acquisition Bill passed. People from BJP opposed but we got the Bill passed. We fought in Bhatta Parsaul (in Noida), Niyamgiri (Odisha)."
Highlighting the Congress poll promises targeting the poor, Gandhi flagged the Right to Shelter for every poor household, to put an end to contract labour within a week and make it permanent, reduce electricity tariff. Making a strong pitch for the beleaguered Congress he said, "We have passed RTI, Land bill, we have done it, we can do it."
