Rahul Gandhi today launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the "fair and lovely" scheme on blackmoney and the raging trouble in JNU and Hyderabad University.
In acerbic remarks on Modi's style of functioning, the Congress Vice President accused him of not listening to anyone's opinion including that of his ministers and MPs.
"You have been taught by your teachers in the RSS that there is one truth in the universe--your own and nobody else's opinion matters," he told the treasury benches while speaking on the motion of thanks to the President's address in the Lok Sabha.
"The Prime Minister cannot run the country with his opinion alone. The country is not PM and PM is not the country," he said in a 40-minute speech during which Modi was absent.
Attacking the scheme on blackmoney announced in the budget on Monday, Gandhi said, "Nobody who has blackmoney will be jailed under Modi's 'Fair and Lovely' scheme. All those who have blackmoney can make it white under this scheme."
Recalling Modi's promise of putting people with blackmoney behind bars, the Congress leader said the government had instead come up with a way to help such people.
He was referring to the one-time four-month compliance window announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley under which people with domestic blackmoney can come clean by paying 45 per cent tax and penalty and get immunity from prosecution.
Gandhi was sharply critical of the government over the turmoil in Delhi's JNU and maintained that student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been charged with sedition, had not uttered a single word against the law but was behind bars while the "real culprits" were roaming free.
Questioning Modi's silence over the JNU episode, Gandhi said that he had not uttered a single word when teachers and the media were attacked in the Patiala House court complex in the capital when Kumar was brought there for a hearing. "Which religion teaches to assault teachers," he asked.
Gandhi said that 60 per cent of students in JNU
belonged to dalits, minorities and OBCs. 40 per cent of them came from a poor background.
"Why are you after the JNU? Because dalits and adivasis study there and you don't want them to grow. But we will not let this happen. We cannot crush the JNU," he asserted in the course of his speech interrupted by the ruling NDA members.
Referring to the suicide of dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in the Hyderabad Central University, Gandhi said that the prime minister had not bothered to call his mother.
He also attacked Modi's Pakistan policy and accused him of releasing that country from a "small cage" in which the UPA government had put it through its diplomacy by suddenly visiting Lahore to have tea with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharief.
"The work done by the UPA has made us all proud. We conducted Panchayat elections, created self-help groups, which generated employment. We had broken the back of insurgency in Kashmir completely.
"And what did the Prime Minister do? He decided to have a cup of tea with Nawaz Sharif without any vision. He decided to take a detour to Pakistan. Just like the Naga Accord. He did not bother to consult anyone...The people in intelligence, the diplomats.
"Perhaps he did not even talk to (External Affairs Minister) Sushmaji (Swaraj). Only his opinion matters. He single handedly destroyed the six years of work done by the UPA," Gandhi said.
Urging the prime minister to reach out to the Opposition, Gandhi made it clear that the opposition does not consider the government as an "enemy" and "does not hate you".
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Gandhi said that when the Prime Minister let Pakistan out of the "little cage we had forced them into", he "gifted them a status equal to ours."
"When he stopped over at Pakistan without talking to the professionals in our government the Prime Minister disrespected our flag. He disrespected those who died in Mumbai and Pathankot", he said.
Besides, he told the Prime Minister "You cannot defend the Indian flag by destroying the relationships between Indians. You are not defending the flag when you frighten your own people into silence."
Turning to the 26-11 Mumbai terror strikes, Gandhi said that then the government of India begged the then CM of Gujarat again and again not to go to Mumbai because he would disturb the operation.
"Did he care? No. He went right ahead to Mumbai, to the Oberoi hotel itself and disturbed the entire operation. He grabbed his headlines while our people died.
