INDIA’S RAHUL GANDHI LEADS OUSTER BID VS MODI
NEW DELHI— Indian National Congress (INC) party leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of failing to live up to its promises as Parliament begins debating a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The motion holds no threat to Modi’s four-year-old government, which has a clear majority in the powerful 545-member lower house of parliament, controlling more than 300 seats.
Eyes 2019
But opposition leaders hope to reap political gains ahead of national elections early next year and have heaped accusations against the Modi government.
The 48-year-old Gandhi, son of slain Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia, has criticized Modi on issues, ranging from government contracts, taxes, monetary and foreign policy.
On Thursday, Gandhi accused the government of creating only 400,000 new jobs as against 20 million jobs promised in a year.
‘You can’t look at me’
“You can’t look me in the eye,” Gandhi said, in front of a smirking Modi in Parliament on Thursday.
“You can abuse me, you can call me Pappu, but I don’t have a speck of hatred against you. I will take out this hatred out of you and turn it into love. I am the Congress,” Gandhi said.
Then he walked to Modi and embraced him, raising both praise and amusement from Indian voters.
Family of politicians
Gandhi’s parents both served as INC president but the young Rahul stayed away from politics for much of his childhood and early youth.
Gandhi entered politics in 2004 and successfully contested the general elections held that year from Amethi, a seat that was his father had held be- fore he was assassinated in 1991.
Rajiv was the son of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who also also the daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Gandhi was elected Congress vice president in 2013, after serving as general secretary and was among the party’s leader when it suffered its electoral result in 2014.
In that election, the INC, which dominated Indian politics for decades, won only 44 seats compared to 206 seats won previously in the 2009 general election.