Lok Sabha polls battle of ideologies: Rahul Gandhi
POTSHOT Rahul says India a product for Modi and benefits of the product are going to 10-20 of friends of PM; but for the Congress, India is like a sea, which includes all the people Modi makes unwarranted statements about me, my family and insults the entire Cong party, saying that he will finish the Cong party. But, the Congress president hugs him in the Parliament. Hate can be countered with love. When I hugged him, I had no hate for him.
RAHUL GANDHI, Congress president
JAIPUR: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the upcoming general elections are witnessing a “fight of ideologies”.
Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the RSS, which is BJP’S ideological mentor, Gandhi said: “Today it is a fight of ideologies. At one end it is RSSBJP, which spreads hatred — they in morning wear half pants, picks sticks, while we on the other end work to unite the country and spread love. This is the basic difference.”
He alleged that for Prime Minister Narendra Modi India is just a product and the entire benefit of the product should go to 10-20 of his friends, but for the Congress India is like sea, which includes all the people.
Addressing the national convention of All India Seva Dal at Ajmer, Gandhi said PM Narendra Modi makes big speeches of changing the country and claims that nothing happened in the last 70 years.
The Congress chief referred to Modi’s speech from the Red Fort ramparts in Delhi and quoted Modi as saying that the elephant was sleeping before he came. Gandhi said that this means freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawahar Lal Nehru, BR Ambedkar, all chief ministers, the people, farmers, labourers and traders did nothing. It is Modi who came and started the work. “This is their mentality. They are not insulting the Congress, but every citizen of the country.”
Blaming t he RSS f or t he unrest in the North-east, he said: “The RSS spreads hatred and works to divide in name caste and religion. We will defeat and counter them with love.”
“Modi makes unwarranted statements about me, my family and insults the entire Congress party, saying that he will finish the Congress party. But, the Congress president hugs him in the Parliament. Hate can be countered with love. When I hugged him, I had no hate for him, but he had and I saw this on his face. He could not handle it and was surprised,” he said.
The Congress president said the party will defeat the BJP in upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “We will defeat them in 2019. We will not remove them, will not finish them, will not kill them, but will defeat them and that too with love,” he said.
Gandhi went on to say: “I want to apologise to the Seva Dal as due respect was not given to them in the party. I assure you that it will not happen in future. Seva Dal is the spine and protector of the ideology, and is called the first line of defence...”
He added: “I also have a complaint with the Seva Dal...the way they should have fought along with people, it was not done. We need to make a fresh start, which means that lakhs of youth need to be brought in Seva Dal.”
He said Seva Dal was banned by the Britishers in 1927. “The way Modi said ‘Congress-free Bharat’, Britishers also said ‘Seva Dal free Bharat’.”
He said that freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose were jailed for years but none of them sought an apology from the Britishers. “But, Savarkar sought apology nine times, one after another, because he had fear inside him. Savarkar could not overcome fear therefore hate came out. Mahatama Gandhi overcame fear so love came out,” he said.
He said that he wants to see “white cap” and uniform of the Seva Dal in every corner of the country. “Wherever there is storm, violence, hatred, there I want to see Seva Dal and its love.”
BJP spokeperson Mukesh Pareek said RSS is nationalist organisation, which works to serve the society.
He said Narendra Modi government brought electricity to every household, poor reached the banks, women cooked food on gas, roads and colleges came up – this shows the picture of development of the country. “Rahul Gandhi is concerned for his family and party, but Modi works for the rights of 125 crore people in the country,” he said.
Among others, chief minister Ashok Gehlot, state Congress president Sachin Pilot, Seva Dal national chief Lalji Desai, AICC General Secretary Avinash Pande, state ministers and MLAS were present.