Continuing his tirade against the BJP and its leadership, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday unleashed an all-out assault by likening them to “Kauravas” and alleging that in the present regime at the Centre, “the corrupt and powerful control the conversation in the country”.
Claiming that the Congress represented the voice of the nation, Rahul said the people will accept a man accused of murder as the president of the BJP, but they will never ever accept the same in the Congress because they hold Congress in the highest regard. Rahul was delivering his valedictory speech at the 84th AICC Plenary Session.
Making a passionate appeal to the Congress workers to fight for truth, Rahul said, “like the Kauravas, the BJP and RSS fight for power, but like the Pandavas, the Congress fights for truth.” Amid thunderous applause from the party workers, Rahul added, “The BJP is the voice of an organisation, the Congress is the voice of a nation.”
The Gandhi scion assured the party workers that he would break walls between them and leaders and vowed to fill the Congress stage with “talented youngsters”. He stressed the need for discipline, saying, “let us put all differences aside and work together to ensure victory for the party.”
Rahul said the BJP sought to divert people’s attention from issues such as unemployment and farm distress with “fancy events”.
“Instead of acknowledging the challenges facing the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi diverts our attention from our problems. We are being told that our problems only exist in our imagination,” he said.
“When it’s important for the Prime Minister to speak, he goes silent. We in the Congress are the servants of people. There is no employment, farmers are dying and the PM asks us to do Yoga in front of the India Gate,” Rahul said.
Rahul, who was criticised, rather bullied, not so long ago for not having the knack of wooing people with words, tried to change that perception during the two-day plenary session.
Rahul went back to “suit boot ki sarkar” jibe, with which he greeted the Prime Minister after Modi put on a monogrammed suit during his the Republic Day meeting with Barack Obama in 2016. “Modiji has now given up wearing suit and his expressions are also changing,” Rahul said.
The Congress leader added that the corrupt and powerful today “control conversation” in the country and the “name Modi symbolises the collusion between crony capitalists and the Prime Minister”.
“Nirav Modi shares the same name as our Prime Minister. He is the biggest fraud of India. Also, lalit Modi, the most corrupt person of Indian cricket, also shares the same with our Prime Minister. All the biggest corrupt people of our country share the same name with our PM Modi,” Rahul quipped.
Referring to demonetisation, Rahul said even the world felt it was a disaster, but the people who did it are yet to realise.
“They never accepted the mistake. Had it been the Congress, it would have admitted immediately that it was a mistake and worked to rectify it. We are human, we make mistakes but Modiji thinks he is a reincarnation of God, he can’t make mistakes,” Rahul said.
On the freedom struggle, Rahul chose to differentiate between the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi and Veer Savarkar. He said Bapu spent 15 years in jail and died for the nation, Savarkar wrote a letter to the British begging for mercy and clemency.
He hoped that India would in the next decade play an all-important role on the global stage. “There are two visions in the world -- of the US and China. In 10 years, I want to see India’s vision there,” he said.
The party also authorised Rahul to choose members of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC) the highest decision-making body of the party which is likely to be a mix of young and experienced party leaders.