BJP had “made a man accused of murder their President”: Rahul
NEW DELHI : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday drew parallels to the Mahabharata epic and said Congress has fought for the truth like the Pandavas, while the BJP had “made a man accused of murder their President”.He was speaking at the 84th Congress plenary session.
Congress president sought to shape the contours of his party’s election campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the battle of Mahabharata between the Kauravas of the (BJP)-(RSS), who are drunk on power, against the Pandavas of the Congress, who are humble, speak softly and are fighting for truth.
Rahul added that like the Kauravas, the BJP had “made a man accused of murder their President”.He said the BJP was the voice of an organization, while Congress was voice of the nation.
He also spoke about Mahatma Gandhi and Veer Savarkar and said, “Gandhiji spent 15 years in jail and died for India. India must never forget when our leader was sleeping on the floor, their leader Mr Savarkar was writing a letter to the British for mercy”.”
The Congress chief criticised the Narendra Modi government for its “links” with crony capitalists. He said the cases of jeweller Nirav Modi and former cricket tsar Lalit Modi have shown how the name ‘Modi’ has come to symbolize the links of crony capitalist with the PM. He alleged that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is “silent” at the bank fraud case since his lawyer daughter “works for crony capitalists”.
Rahul’s presidential speech at the plenary session , where he called for reform in the party, was reminiscent of his father Rajiv Gandhi’s speech at the centenary session of the Congress party on December 28, 1985, in Mumbai.
Then, Rajiv Gandhi had spoken of the enthusiasm of ordinary Congress workers being “handicapped” by the “brokers of power and influence” in the party, who “dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy”.
In his speech, Rahul said his first task would be to demolish the “wall” between leaders and workers, where party tickets are denied to hardworking workers by people who “parachute” at the last moment, or when a worker, who has spent 10 to 15 years for the party, is told he cannot get the ticket since has no money to contest election.
In what was his first address to the party as its chief, Rahul Gandhi said he wanted to carve out space for workers, and for all talented young women and men in the Congress, but this process would be carried out “not with anger, but with love” and by giving “due respect to the senior leadership”.
Rahul Gandhi identified joblessness among youth, farm distress and farmer suicides as the problems facing the country, and sketched his vision of a Congress-led government at the Centre creating food parks that would ensure suitable price to farmers for their produce, farm loan waiver and interest-free loans to farmers.
Rahul Gandhi conceded that people of the country had felt let down by the Congress in the last few years of the UPA-2 government. But the question now was whether India wishes to live the lies of “Modi’s maya”, or have the courage to face the truth of joblessness and farm distress.
Mr. Gandhi also took a dig at PMModi, saying the PM jumps from events. “From surgical strike to demonetization to Gabbar Singh Ttax to yoga parade in front of Parliament. PM keeps jumping from events.””He does not speak when he needs to and prevent us from speaking. We are the servants of the people.
We won’t be quiet,”said Mr. Gandhi and added, “They tell our tribals the land does not belong to them. They tell our Muslims who supported our great nation go to Pakistan. They tell our women to dress properly.”
Mr. Gandhi added, “The man who steals money from banks is also Modi. The most corrupt man in cricket is also Modi. Modi symbolises collusion. BJP’s religion is only to usurp power. The trust people had reposed on Modiji has been broken.”
In his speech, formerPM Manmohan Singh said the Modi government “messed up” the economy, and was spouting “jumla” (rhetoric) with pipe dreams about generating 20 million jobs and doubling farm incomes.
Singh said that only about 1.6% of the country’s GDP was spent on defence expenditure, which, he said, could not meet the challenges that the security apparatus posed. He also faulted the Modi government’s foreign policy.
On the economy, which he said grew by 7.8% under the UPA regime led by him, Singh rued that at a time the world economy had grown from 2.8% to 3.8% from 2014 to 2018, the Indian economy had “decoupled itself” from the world economy.
Both Rahul Gandhi and he criticised demonetisation and GST implementation. On the promise of doubling farmers’ income, the former PM said: “If you have to double farmers’ incomes in six years’ time, you need a growth rate of 12% per annum as the minimum. And that is unthinkable” and termed it as another “jumla-type statement”. *With Agency Inputs).
