‘Note ban, lockdown ruined poor’
EAST CHAMPARAN/DARBHANGA:
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Wednesday that the Narendra Modi-led government’s motive behind implementing demonetisation and the nationwide lockdown imposed to control the coronavirus pandemic was the same: to destroy the lives of common citizens and benefit a few business entities.
“Demonetisation and lockdown were resorted to with a common purpose to help 5-10 rich businessmen... He made the people deposit their money in banks in the name of the fight against black money and used the cash to waive loans to businessmen,” Gandhi said while addressing a public meeting at Valmikinagar in Bihar’s West Champaran district.
The former Congress president said he was pained to see the people of Punjab displaying their anger by burning effigies of Prime Minister Modi on Dussehra. “The youth and farmers of Punjab and Bihar and the youth of Uttar Pradesh are angry that our PM keeps making speeches with the Bihar chief minister and talks about other countries, but not the problems confronting our country such as unemployment,” he said.
“Farmers in Bihar are struggling to get fair prices for their produce as the mandi system was dismantled long ago. This led to migration of workforce to other states in search of jobs. There is no job in Bihar. There is no demerit in farmers and youth. The fault lies in chief minister Nitish Kumar and PM Modi, who never speak the truth,” Gandhi said, adding that the nation cannot progress if farmers and villages are not looked after.
Reminding the people of the significance of Champaran during the freedom struggle, Gandhi said that Mahatma Gandhi had understood the power of Bihar and the land of Champaran and he chose the place to launch his fight against the most powerful nation of the world at that time.
He said that ironically the land of Champaran saw PM Modi telling a lie to the people. “During the last election, he (Modi) had said that he would take a sip of tea made of sugar from local sugar mills. Do you remember? Did he have tea with you? None of the closed mills could be revived,” said Gandhi.
He said that the crowd would drive him (Modi) away when he would start talking about giving jobs to the youth, as his promise of two crore jobs every year turned out to be fake.
At another rally in Kusheshwar Sthan in Darbhanga, Gandhi said Bihar has remained the poorest state even though the people gave 15 years to Nitish Kumar and six years to PM Modi. “I want that the youth of Bihar, the farmers of Bihar should not only show the path to Bihar but also show the way to the whole country. I want to see the day when the youth from other states come to Patna to find employment.”
Urging the people to keep fresh in their minds the sufferings of workers during the lockdown, the Congress leader said migrants were forced to march thousands of kilometres on foot without food and water.