Gandhi, Shah trade potshots from each other’s stronghold
Barbs fly over lack of development
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the ruling BJP in Gujarat and the Centre of doing little to generate jobs, empower women and provide quality education.
Gandhi addressed young people, women and Dalits in Vadodara as part of a three-day march crisscrossing central Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
The state, along with Himachal Pradesh, is expected to go to the polls this year.
For the Congress vice president, Gujarat is a battleground state where the BJP is facing an irate Patel community and angry Dalits and farmers.
Gandhi spoke at length about women’s empowerment and hit out at the government for fewer jobs and slowing growth, a common theme in his speeches in recent weeks after the economy decelerated to a three-year low of 5.7% in the quarter ended September.
“You people enjoy taking selfies. But when you do so, the jobs are generated in China and not in India. The Modi government has no focus on generating new jobs,” Gandhi told students.
He said government initiatives such as Make in India and Start up India failed to create jobs.
He also attacked the BJP for paying what he said was only lip service to women’s empowerment.
“Have you seen any woman in shorts at the RSS shakhas? That shows their mindset. Their claims of empowering women are hollow. The moment women tries to raise their voice, it has been suppressed.”
But his remark attracted criticism, with Union minister Smriti Irani calling it indecent. “If Rahulji believes that wearing shorts in India is the sign of empowerment, as a woman I want to contradict it,” she said in Amethi.
At his first stop of the day in Karjan, Gandhi took a swipe at BJP chief Shah, whose son is in the news for filing a R100-crore defamation case against a website over a story on his company.
“The BJP’s slogan has changed to Amit Shah ke bete ko bachao (save Amit Shah’s son) from Beti Bachao (save the girl child). And, this has happened under the nose of Modiji. Modiji calls himself chowkidar (watchman). Where is this chowkidar?”
Later in Vadodara, Gandhi also brought up last month’s murder of Bengaluru journalist Gauri Lankesh. “She was shot dead because they want you to live in fear.”
Gandhi also accused Prime Minister Modi of focusing on profits rather than providing quality education to the people.
“The goal of the education system is not to make profit, but to provide education. The former chief minister of Gujarat and the current Prime Minister has always considered profit as the prime focus of the education system…”
He promised to put the focus back on education if the Congress is voted to power in the state, which his party ruled more than two decades ago.
The concluding leg of Gandhi’s Navsarjan Yatra covered central Gujarat that used to be a Congress bastion till the 2002 elections, held in the backdrop of communal riots that killed more than 1,000 people.
“When the UPA was in power, crude oil cost $140 a barrel, which has reduced to $50 now. But has this benefit passed on to you? Is petrol cheap now?” he asked the audience in Dabhoi.
The crowd chorused: “No”.