Rahul questions PM’S ‘silence’ on key issues
DELHI RALLY Kicks off 2019 campaign, says Modi must speak on graft, unemployment
NEW DELHI: In one of his sharpest attacks on the National Democratic Alliance government’s policies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the “country’s watchman is silent” on graft and predicted his party’s victory in the upcoming round of assembly elections and next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing his first public gathering in the national Capital since taking over as the party president, he accused Modi of making “hollow promises and speaking lies” during his 35-minute speech in Hindi at the well-attended ‘Jan Aakrosh (public anger)’ rally at Ramlila Maidan.
The rally, held with the Red Fort as a backdrop and attended by a battery of senior Congress leaders, including former party president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was seen by experts as the flagging-off of the party’s 2019 campaign.
“I will tell you why Congress will win the elections — because our workers give their blood and sweat, stand in the heat for the party. Woh sher ka bacha aur satya ka sipahi hai (he is a lion’s cub and a soldier of truth). You kill him, beat him, break his legs, fire at him, but he will not leave the fight for truth,” Gandhi said.
Assembly polls are due this year in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Among other allegations — related to corruption, Dalits, the Supreme Court, unemployment and rural distress — the Congress president questioned Modi’s meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan last week, accusing the PM of not putting forth India’s point of view.
“People have a hard time in finding the truth in what Modi-ji says. He did not speak a single word on Doklam. What kind of Prime Minister is he? He tasted tea with Chinese president and held meeting without a single agenda,” Gandhi said.
“China’s army is entrenched in Doklam, they are making helipads, extending airport and the India’s PM held discussions without any agenda. What does this mean? None of the Prime Ministers had done such a thing but only Narendra Modi can do this.”
In response, the BJP dismissed the Congress rally as farce, with party chief Amit Shah calling it a “Parivar Akrosh (family anger)” rally that highlighted increasing irrelevance of a “dynasty and their courtiers who have been sent out of power from one state after another”.