The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
‘Biggest scam’: Rahul attacks Modi on poll bonds, farm loans
Rally in Tukkuguda where Cong had announced ‘guarantees’ for Telangana polls
WITH BHARAT Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and daughter of former CM KC hand rashek ar Rao,K Kavitha in prison in the alleged Delhi liquor policy case, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge held a massive rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad at Tukkuguda Saturday to launch the Congress’s manifesto, titled ‘Nyay Patra’, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Rahul described the party’s poll manifesto as the “soul of India”, and said, “We defeated the BJP’S B Team of BRS in the Telangana Assembly elections. Congress will defeat the BJP’S real A Team in the coming elections.” “In Congress-ruled states, we have started fulfilling all the guarantees we had announced. In Telangana, we started implementing the promises immediately after coming to power,” he said, while the principal objective of Congress is to sustain the momentum of the Telangana Assembly elections victory into the Lok Sabha polls. The state government has already filled up 30,000 government jobs and will fill another 50,000 soon, Rahul said.
Launching a scathing attack on the Bjp-led central government, Rahul alleged that the electoral bonds scheme was the “world’s biggest scam” and claimed that PM Narendra Modi has kept “his people” in the Election Commission. The Supreme Court had struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional in a ruling in
February.
Rahul also alleged that about 30 farmers were committing suicides in India every day and claimed Modi has waived loans to the tune of Rs 16 lakh crore of the rich, while not even one rupee of farmers’ loans was waived.
Highlighting the five ‘Nyays’ (justice) in the Congress manifesto, he said through ‘Kisan Nyay’, farm loans will be waived and legal guarantee will be given for MSP, if they were voted to power at the Centre.
The selection of the place for the meeting — Tukkuguda — is significant as it was from here that the party had announced the six poll ‘guarantees’ ahead of the Assembly elections in
November last year. Congress stormed to power and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy took charge in December. Telangana Congress has named the public meeting “Jana Jatra” (people’s procession), and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu claimed that about 10 lakh Congress supporters and workers attended the meeting to express their support for Rahul and Congress.
“As a part of our guarantees during this election, I want to say that in every sector, we will give Rs 1 lakh as apprenticeship to all youths. We will bring a ‘nari nyay law’, under which we will put Rs 1 lakh in the bank accounts of every woman of every family in the country, every year. This is a revolutionary step and this will change the face of the whole country. The Congress giving Rs 1 lakh directly in the bank accounts of women of the poorest families will usher in a big change. Once the Congress starts depositing the money, no family would be left in the country with less than Rs 1 lakh income per annum,’’ he said.
“Whatever the people want, it is there in our manifesto and Congress will fulfil it,’’ he emphasised. “Your former CM KCR tapped the phones of thousands of people illegally and harassed them using the intelligence, police and other agencies. Now, Congress in Telangana will win more than 14 seats and decimate the BRS,’’ he said.