Congress chief seeks audience with Modi to explain manifesto

NEW DELHI: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to PM Modi and sought time from him to explain in person the party’s ‘Nyay Patra’.

In his two-page letter, he told the prime minister that he is being misinformed by his advisors about things that are not even written in the ‘Nyay Patra’ -- the Congress’ manifesto for the LS elections.

In his letter, Kharge said the Congress’ ‘Nyay Patra’ aims at providing “nyay (justice)” to the youngsters, women, farmers, labourers and marginalised people across all castes and communities.

“It has become your habit to seize on a few words taken out of context and create a communal divide. You are lowering the dignity of the chair by speaking in this manner,” he said.

“Your ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ works for the corporates whose taxes you reduced while the salaried class pays higher taxes. The poor pay GST even on food and salt and the rich corporate claim GST refunds. That is why, when we talk of inequality between the rich and the poor, you are purposely equating it with Hindu and Muslim,” Kharge claimed.

“Our manifesto is for the people of India -- whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist. I think you have still not forgotten your pre-Independence allies the Muslim League and colonial masters,” Kharge charged.

The Congress Chief said in the letter, “Your government was the one who used demonetisation as an ‘organised loot and legalised plunder’ to transfer the money deposited by the poor in the banks to the rich in the form of loans. Then, as part a of conscious design, these loans were surreptitiously written off by your government. The lakhs of crores of corporate loans that your government has written off since 2014 is a transfer of wealth from poor to rich. No farmer’s loans, artisan’s loans, MSME loans or student loans were waived off by you.”

“You and your government have repeatedly turned away from the atrocities that the

Your government was the one who used demonetisation as an ‘organised loot and legalised plunder’ to transfer money deposited by the poor in the banks to the rich in the form of loans

— Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress President

poor and backward women are facing … Today, you talk about their ‘mangalsutra’. Isn’t your government responsible for the atrocities against women in Manipur, against Dalit girls, garlanding of rapists? When farmers are committing suicide under your government, how are you protecting their wives and children?” Mallikarjun Kharge asked.