Adalaj, Gujarat: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday urged people to consider the Lok Sabha polls as “another independence struggle” and told them to raise the real issues facing them instead of getting drawn into trivialities.
“Your greatest weapon is awareness about the realities facing the country, your vote is your weapon. Use it with after due consideration and due discretion. Ensure that it does not hurt anyone,” Gandhi said in her public address. “True ‘desh bhakti’ [patriotism] is being aware about real problems and challenges before the country.”
Amid slogans comparing her with Indira Gandhi, she made a short speech in Hindi, saying this was her first visit to Gujarat. “When I went to the Gandhi Ashram in Sabarmati, I was almost driven to tears,” she said, adding that it was “crucial that the message about real issues should go out from this land of the Mahatma.
'This country belongs to nobody but you'
“In this election, raise issues that are real, not trivial and diversionary, and this is your responsibility as the true citizens. This country belongs to nobody else but to you. So make the right and informed decisions after taking stock of the hollow promises given to you.
“Where are the two crore [20 million] jobs? Where is the Rs15 lakh [1.5 million, or Dh78,832] in your account? Where is women’s security? Think about this, ask these questions,” she said.
Gandhi said the real India was not about spreading hatred everywhere.
“The true nature of India is love and compassion towards one and all, not hatred. It is this very ethos which is being destroyed,” she said.
Meanwhile, accusing the BJP of only making promises and not fulfilling them, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said if his party wins the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it would deliver its promise of farm loan waiver, guaranteed minimum income scheme and a single-tax regime to replace the “complex GST”.
Addressing a public rally in Gandhinagar, he questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s patriotism, asking why he is not telling the nation that it was the earlier National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government which had released Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar — the man behind the Pulwama suicide bombing.
He said Azhar was nabbed and sent to jail during the Congress government, and claimed that it was incumbent National Security Advisor Ajit Doval who had escorted him to Kandhar in a special aircraft.
Gandhi also questioned Modi’s “self-proclaimed” fight against corruption and accused him of taking financial favours from Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya and Anil Ambani.
“Modi calls them Nirav bhai, Mehul bhai, Anil bhai... They all give him money,” he alleged.
Modi waived loans worth [Rs3.5 trillion] of 15 industrialists... he gave money to the rich, but Congress is going to give money to farmers and small businessmen. I assure you that we will form the government in 2019 and implement minimum income guarantee scheme across the nation and will give money directly into bank accounts of the poor
The Congress president said his party is going to come to power and would do “something historic”.
“Modi waived loans worth [Rs3.5 trillion] of 15 industrialists... he gave money to the rich, but Congress is going to give money to farmers and small businessmen. I assure you that we will form the government in 2019 and implement minimum income guarantee scheme across the nation and will give money directly into bank accounts of the poor,” he said.
The Congress delivered on its promise within two days of forming governments in the states of Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi said, adding that he felt bad for not being able to do the same for Gujarat’s farmers who also need it just as much.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading hatred, Gandhi said by doing so, the party is trying to divert attention from real issues like unemployment — “which was the highest in last 45 years” — and farmer issues.
He also criticised the BJP for creating a complex Goods and Services Tax (GST) with five different taxes, which people “do not understand even now”. He said the Congress will reform the GST after coming to power by making it a single-tax regime.
He also questioned Modi’s demonetisation decision, saying while he claimed it was part of a fight against black money, it only hurt the poor.
“In those queues outside banks, did you see Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi or Anil Ambani? It was only the poor who stood in those queues,” he said.
