Rahul reiterates Cong. plan to conduct caste and economic surveys
At rallies in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, Cong. leader says country is facing challenges such as widening economic inequality and unemployment, and that OBCs, STs and SCs are being neglected
Apocket-sized Constitution in hand, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday held his rst rally in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State as well as in Chhattisgarh and reiterated his charge that the ongoing Lok Sabha poll is the only chance for the people of the country to defeat the BJP and save democracy.
In both Patan, Gujarat, and Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, he held up the copy of the Constitution for the crowds.
In Bilaspur, while canvassing in support of the Congress candidate Devendra Yadav, Mr. Gandhi said the PM is not saying [BJP’s slogan] char sau paar [over 400 seats] these days. “Earlier Narendra Modi said char sau paar. Now he isn’t talking about crossing 150. Statements are coming that we are not against the Constitution, we are not against reservation, we are not against democracy. Why? Because they have come to know that... the people of the country have caught the pulse that these people [BJP and RSS] want to uproot the Constitution and the rights of the poor,” he said.
Unemployment issue
In both poll-bound States, the Congress leader touched upon his pet themes of widening economic inequality, unemployment, in¢ation, neglect of the OBCs, STs and SCs and the need for a caste census, and Mr. Modi’s “support” to industrialists such as Gautam Adani.
Mr. Gandhi emphasised that this general election is a battle between two ideologies: one of the RSS, which believes in dividing the country and its people along social and communal lines, and that of the Congress and its allies, which believe in uniting the country and its people. “This is a ght between two thought processes. On one side, the BJP and RSS want to nish our Constitution while on the other, we in the Congress and the INDIA bloc are safeguarding it,” he said.
Suggesting that the tribals and Dalits don’t gure on the agenda of the RSS and BJP, the Congress leader stressed the importance of a caste census for ensuring justice and proper representation for these communities.
‘Money for billionaires’
Elaborating on the increasing inequality, he said in Bilaspur that that the Centre had given “₹16 lakh crore to 22 billionaires, an amount equal to 25 years of MNREGA wages” and the money needed to waive the loans of farmers for “24 years”.
In Patan, Mr. Gandhi also thanked the former ruler of Bhavnagar state for it becoming the rst princely state to o¦er to integrate with the Union of India at the time of Independence.