The Congress on Friday flagged a "Mrit Kaal" or deadly period of unemployment, rising crime, suicides and agrarian distress, contesting the rosy picture painted by the BJP ahead of the general election through a campaign woven around Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s "guarantees".
Rahul Gandhi, who has been relentlessly alleging that a few corporate houses have ensured the mainstream media works for Modi, posted a message on X saying: "Time has come to step out of the false image crafted by the 'Modi Media' to see the truth. The double-engine government is a guarantee for Jungle-Raj."
Modi describes the states ruled by the BJP as being under a "double-engine government", implying that a state government's power to do good is enhanced by central support if the same party leads both governments.
Rahul seemed to be subtly arguing that the media, which had used the "jungle raj" tag for past governments headed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party, had never criticised BJP governments for disorder and crimes on their watch. Even lawless Manipur has not attracted the "jungle raj" label.
“The law-&-order situation in Uttar Pradesh is the biggest example how the BJP and the ‘Modi Media’ have joined hands to run this business of lies,” Rahul said.
“Somewhere, you see bodies of teenage sisters hanging from the tree. Somewhere, you see a murder, head smashed by bricks. Sometimes you see the audacity of BJP workers indulging in gang-rape on IIT-BHU campus, sometimes a woman judge commits suicide as she doesn’t get justice.
“This is the truth of Uttar Pradesh which is tirelessly hailed by ‘Modi Media’ for excellent law-&-order situation.”
Party spokesperson Kanhaiya Kumar, addressing a news conference, referred to the 20 Indian youths stranded in Russia after being recruited for the Russian army by an agent who allegedly misled them.
He said India’s youth felt compelled to go abroad for livelihood because of the vanishing jobs here, and took a dig at Modi’c claims of an Amrit Kaal (the best of times) in India.
"There are no jobs here. In India, the youth faced a Mrit Kaal (period of death) and that has now extended to (them in) foreign countries as well," Kanhaiya said.
