Chowkidar removed CBI chief as he sought Rafale papers: Rahul

ELECTION PITCH Addressing ‘Sankalp maha rally’ in Jhalawar, Cong chief attacks Centre on several issues

Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged in an election rally at Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s home turf of Jhalawar that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Alok Verma was removed for seeking documents and raising questions about the Rafale deal, as part of the Congress president’s his continued attack on the National Democratic Alliance government.

Addressing a ‘Sankalp maha rally’ of the Congress Gandhi, attacked Centre on several issues, including the feud between the top two officers of CBI - director Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana.

“Chowkidar removed the CBI director last night because he was seeking documents of the Rafale deal,” the Congress president said in a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

There has been no indication from CBI that it was looking into the Rafale deal.

Gandhi also attacked the Raje government in the state for “neglecting farmers” and for allegedly putting R3.5 lakh crore in the pockets of 15 big corporate houses. “You must have seen photograph of PM Narendra Modi and CM Raje with corporate rather than farmers in the last five years,” Gandhi said, while criticised the Raje government for allegedly failing to provide the right price for garlic to the Hadoti farmers due to which, he said, several farmers committed suicide.

“If farmer does not pay his debts, he is termed defaulter; if big corporates turns defaulters, banks queue up before them to loan them other people’s money,” Rahul said.

He said that former United Progressive Alliance government launched the R35,000 crore Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) for providing employment to rural labourers. The Modi government, he said, said MNERGS was a scheme to dig potholes.

Gandhi also said that the Modi government’s demonetisation move failed to bring black money and instead turned the black money into white money, and alleged that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was a failure

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the party’s Rajasthan in-charge, Avinash Pandey, and senior leaders Manvendra Singh and CP Joshi were also present at the rally.

The state BJP responded to the allegations made by the Congress leaders, with district BJP president of Jhalawar, Sanjay Jain Tau,saying that all charges made by Gandhi were “baseless”, including on farm distress “because the Raje government has waived off farm loans in the state”.

Rural development and panchayati raj minister Rajendra Rathore said Congress leaders in Rajasthan and in Delhi “do not know the basics of politics”. Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s allegations at a press conference in Jaipur, Rathore said: “By giving baseless statements without facts, it is clear that Gandhi is trying to mislead the people.”

“The Congress could not yet announce the face of chief minister in Rajasthan. Gandhi is just making efforts to bring Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot together on public platforms,” he said.

Political analyst Narayan Bareth said that Rahul’s allegations come at a time the Modi government’s image has taken a beating due to the feud within the CBI.

“Supreme Court judges came out in the open against the Chief Justice of India earlier this year and now CBI officials’ tug-of-war is in public domain,” he said.

Rajasthan goes to the polls on December 7.

The results for assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will be announced on December 11.

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