Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying all day and said he is the “chowkidar” of the corrupt and fugitives like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.
The Congress is fighting to keep the country united and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be a fight between ideologies of the Congress and the BJP-RSS, he said at a rally here kicking off his party's campaign in Bengal.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi keeps on lying all day. Wherever he goes he lies... the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state will be between ideologies. On one hand, you have the Congress party which is fighting to keep the country united and on another hand the BJP-RSS-Narendra Modi who want to divide the country on religious and caste lines,” Rahul said while addressing a rally here.
Accusing Modi of being the “chowkidar” of “corrupt and fugitive” businessmen Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, he said Modi had gifted Anil Ambani the Rafale deal and had looted Rs 30,000 crore of public money.
Earlier in Bihar’s Purnea, Rahul took a potshot at Modi’s “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign, calling him a gatekeeper who stood guard for the wealth of the rich.
Modi and his partymen have launched the “Main Bhi Chowkidar (I too am a watchman)” campaign to blunt the Opposition’s, especially the Congress's, “chowkidar chor hai (watchman is a thief)” slogan.
“What type of people employ chowkidars outside their homes? Have you seen a chowkidar deployed at the gates of a common man’s house?” Rahul asked the gathering.
Addressing his maiden rally in Bihar since the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul said Modi treated and addressed Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi “and others like them as bhai” while “he calls common people like you as only mitron (friends)”.
“He made promises of (distributing) Rs 15 lakh into the accounts of all the poor, two crore jobs in five years and waiver of loans to the farmers. Did he ever tell you why he failed to deliver on these? Has he done anything for the benefit of farmers, workers and the youth?” he asked.
“The Congress, on the other hand, promised loan waiver for farmers and did so within a fortnight of its governments being formed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan,” he claimed. He also said if the Congress-led alliance came to power in the state, “it will draw a minimum income line and a sum of money will be automatically deposited into the accounts of those who were below this line”.
Referring to demonetisation, the Congress president said if its stated purpose was the eradication of black money, why were the common people made to undergo such great difficulties.
“Why the savings of women made over the years for difficult times were taken away from them in the name of demonetisation? If this government can waive loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of the rich, why can he not provide much-needed relief to farmers?” Rahul asked.
Unruly scenes
Unruly scenes were witnessed at Rahul’s rally venue at Malda when restive party supporters threw chairs and broke the barricade of the VIP enclosure.
Rahul was not present at the venue at Chanchal at the time as he was scheduled to reach there at 3pm from Purnea in Bihar.
The incident took place when Congress activists who had arrived at the venue from the nearby districts tried to barge into the inner ring of the rally ground, leading to the commotion.
They shouted slogans against the party’s state leadership for not making proper arrangements for the supporters to sit at the venue.
The state Congress leaders and police personnel posted at the spot tried to pacify the crowd but their pleas fell on deaf ears as supporters started throwing chairs at the VIP sitting zone in front of the stage, which was earmarked for senior party leaders and MLAs.
The situation was brought under control after the police and party leaders pacified the crowd, party sources said.