Rahul ki mann ki baat: quotes Modi 17 times

In a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said: "Modi ji is interested only in Modi ji, nobody else. His prime fixation is how to remain the Prime Minister. He is not interested in attacks on Dalits, sexual assaults on women and attacks on minorities."

Launching a year-long "Save the Constitution" movement through seminars and public meetings in every State until Ambedkar's birth anniversary on April 14 next year, he said Modi and his party are engaged in destroying the Constitution and institutions.

In this context, he cited how the government had allowed the Supreme Court to undermine the law enacted during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime for protection of rights of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Addressing a packed Talkatora Stadium here, he said: "The Supreme Court is being crushed. Parliament is shut. Media is suppressed. Farmers and small traders are crushed. BJP leaders are advised not to speak. Sab bolna band karo. Only Modi will speak, Modi’s ‘man ki baat’. This is a democracy that he cannot destroy as the Congress and the people are vigilant. He will learn in 2019, when the people will tell him their man ki baat.

Rahul pointed out how Modi had no answer when the International Monetary Fund chief bluntly asked him the other day why he was not doing enough for women’s safety.

"No other Prime Minister was ever told such things. The world used to talk about India’s diversity, robust democratic institutions like Parliament, Supreme Court and the Election Commission. They looked up to us. Modi has destroyed India’s reputation. Today the world talks about attacks on women, minorities and Dalits. Modi has delivered a lethal blow to India’s image."

Referring to the gruesome incidents of rape and murder in recent times, he said Modi cannot speak a word about them because a BJP MLA is involved. "They said Beti bachao-Beti padhao. Now only Beti bachao, BJP se bachao. The Government won’t protect, let the parents protect."

Asserting that it was the Prime Minister who plotted parliamentary shutdown for the first time in history, Rahul said: "The Prime Minister is scared of Parliament. Let me speak in Parliament for 15 minutes, I shall speak on Rafale and Nirav Modi. Modi ji won’t be able to stand it.’’ He had started his address with a reference to a book by Modi where he has purportedly said that the Valmiki community choses to clean up toilets because it of the spirituality of the act.

"This is his mind set. This is how he sees Dalits. The entire country should know this. You have to understand this. Youth should feel spiritual while frying pakodas, Dalits should feel the same while cleaning toilets; and Modi ji will feel spiritual in being the Prime Minister."