Polls a battle of ideologies, not personalities, says Rahul

Gabbar, Kalia, Samba — the complete gang... Flanked by Reddy brothers and Yeddyurappa, Modi will speak against corruption. RAHUL GANDHI, Cong president

BENGALURU: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal attacks on him wouldn’t pay off in the Karnataka polls because the assembly elections were a battle of ideologies, not personalities.

“This election is about the future of Karnataka. Unable to target us on issues like education, roads or farmers welfare, he (Modi) goes after Rahul Gandhi,” said Gandhi, who embarked on the eighth leg of his ‘Jana Ashirwada Yatre’ by addressing three rallies at Aurad, Bhalki and Humnabad in Bidar district.

He went on to claim that the Prime Minister makes personal attacks whenever he is afraid of a reversal. “But we won’t reciprocate, because we believe in a culture where we treat opponents with respect. Why doesn’t the PM tell small businesses why he couldn’t save them from the Gabbar Singh Tax? Instead of that, he keeps attacking me. It won’t benefit him.”

Gandhi has coined the term Gabbar Singh Tax, named after the villain in the cult Hindi film Sholay, to describe the goods and services tax (GST) that he claims is hurting small businesses.

Gandhi asked Modi to follow Lingayat statesman Basavanna’s principle of ‘Nudditante Nade’ (practice what you preach) instead of pointing fingers at others.

“He promised to deposit ₹15 lakh each in poor citizens’ bank accounts (by bringing back black money stashed abroad). Did he do it? He promised two crore jobs to the youth every year. Did he do it? He said he would ensure higher minimum support price for farmers. But he did none of this,” he said.

Alleging that the Prime Minister merely pays lip service to farmers’ issues, Gandhi said the Centre hadn’t even contributed a ten-rupee note to the ₹8,500-crore farm loan waiver announced by the Siddaramaiah government of Karnataka. He also said he Centre’s much-publicised crop insurance scheme was something that benefited insurance companies, not farmers.

The Congress president said the Siddaramaiah government, unlike the BJP regime at the Centre, fulfilled 90% of the promises made in the manifesto brought out in the previous elections. He said Modi, on the other hand, was only interested in surrounding himself with a complete set of villainous characters from the movie Sholay.

“Gabbar, Kalia, Samba — the complete gang,” he quipped. “Flanked by Reddy brothers and Yeddyurappa, Modi will speak against corruption.”

Gandhi is expected to cover the Kalburgi, Gadaga and Haveri districts over the next few days as the battle for Karnataka intensifies.