Attack me but spare the poor, Rahul tells PM Modi, ministers

THE CONGRESS V-P ALLEGED THAT THE MODI GOVERNMENT WAS TRYING TO CRUSH THE VOICE OF THE MARGINALISED

NEW DELHI: Congressvice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Prime Minister Na rend ra Mo di and his cabinet colleagues were “free” to launch personal attacks on him but they should not “crush poor, powerless, tribals and underprivileged” for demanding their rights.

“Modi attacked me personally. His party colleagues are attacking me personally on a daily basis. They are free to attack me but they should not crush the poor and the weak for whom I speak,” he said in an apparent reference to the PM’s remarks in the Lok Sabha last week that “some people age but do not mature”.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley too had recently taken a dig at the Congress V-P over his Lok Sabha speech, saying, “The more I hear Rahul Gandhi, the more I start wondering how much does he know— when will he know.”

After meeting a delegation of tribal representatives and party legislators from Bastar area of Chhattisgarh, Gandhi told reporters, “Hit me as much as you want. Attack me as much as you want. Speak for as long as you want to, but don’t hit the poor people of the country.”

Gandhi also linked the Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar issues with the rights of the marginalised and alleged that the Modi government was trying to crush their voice. “Tribals from Bastar met me today. They said they are facing atrocities in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar and that they are being threatened and crushed,” he said.

The Congress leader said the country will not benefit by “beating and threatening” people.

“You pressured Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad, here you are pressuring Kanhaiya and our students .”

He added, “Be it a farmer, Dalit, tribal or small trader… wherever a weak person is raising his voice, the Mo di government is trying to crush it. These people are the strength of India and no one will benefit by crushing them.”