In a hard hitting attack on the BJP, Congress president Rahul Gandhi today accused it of spreading violence, forming governments using money and dividing the country for the sake of power.
Embarking on the third round of his campaign tour in poll-bound Karnataka, he also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi charging him with "insulting" the common man by claiming credit for the country's progress.
"They will do anything for power. Modi ji will comeand repeatedly lie," he said, addressing public meetings in the coastal Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, considered the stronghold of the BJP which is posing a tough challenge to the ruling Congress in the upcoming assembly polls.
"In Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal they brought the governments using money. You have seen it all," Gandhi charged.
Two days after using Mahabharata analogy at the Congress plenary where he had said while BJP was like Kauravas, who fought for power, the Congress, as Pandavas did, battled for truth, Gandhi today again invoked the epic battle to portray the present situation.
"The question then was whether Hindustan walks on thepath of truth or lies. In a way similar question is again being asked today. On one side BJP that can do anything for power," he charged adding on other side, Congress was "based on truth."
Attacking BJP President Amit Shah, the Congress chief called him a "murder accused".
At Padubidre, Gandhi accused the prime minister of favouring big businesses by waiving their loans while ignoring farmers.
"Wherever Narendra Modi goes he says in the last 70 years nothing has happened. He is insulting your parents, poor farmers, labourers, small businessmen of India," he said.
If the country today stood as equal to other countries of the world, it had not happened in two years. It had taken years of time, sweat and blood of common people.
"Modi should stop insulting the common man," he told a party rally at Padubidre in coastal Udupi district.
No single person can take a country forward, he noted.
Gandhi, who visited the northern parts of the state during the previous two rounds, is now on a two-day trip of south coastal Karnataka and Malnad regions.
Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, which have a strong BJP presence, and Hassan, the home district of former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda, are on his itinerary.
In his rally at Surathkal, Gandhi referred to the Punjab National bank fraud and said money was taken away from people's pockets and put into banks and a few days later Nirav Modi ran away with "your money worth Rs 22,000 crore."
"Nirav Modi ran away with the money of people of India and chowkidar (Modi) was just watching. Don't know whether thechowkidar was just watching or he opened the door, it is stillnot clear. This is the truth about Narendra Modi," he said.
He said Modi makes "big speeches but there is no weight in what he speaks, he makes promises, and he distributes promises like toffeestake this take this"
Gandhi also accused Modi of not recognising other leaders in BJP.
"The Prime Minister doesn't understand that there are other leaders in BJP. He doesn't understand there are Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, (Nitin) Gadkari(veteran L K ) Advani. All of them have worked for the country, but Modi doesn't want to give them spaceonly one person wants to run the country...," he charged.
Raising the Rafale fighter jet deal issue, he alleged that the government tried its best to keep the price a secret.
However, the French president during his visit to India denied having any such secret pact with India, he claimed.
Gandhi said, "The defence minister did not reveal the rates but somehow the manufacturer disclosed it."
During the Congress regime, the purchase price was Rs 570 crore for each plane whereas Modi fixed it at Rs 1,670 crore for each plane, he claimed.
"The Government was paying three times more than what we intended to pay," he alleged.
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