Modi isn’t all he is brewed up to be, says Rahul Gandhi
At a time when the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate was busy holding fort in North-East, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched his fiercest-yet attack on Narendra Modi from the Gujarat strongman’s own turf. From attacking Modi for his RSS roots to debunking his developmental claims; from hitting out over staking claim to Sardar Patel to finally taking a dig at him for projecting his tea-seller image, Rahul said one should respect the work of a chaiwala but not the one who fools others.
“As many as 13,000 Government schools have been shut down and 55,000 small and medium-scale businesses have stopped operation. I ask why the Gujarat Government works only for the privilegedIJ The development in Gujarat was due to the hard work of the people and not because of one single person,” Rahul said, adding while his grandmother worked towards eradicating poverty from the country, the Gujarat Government was working towards eliminating the poor from the country in an apparent reference to the State Government’s new BPl yardstick.
Addressing a huge rally at tribal-dominated Bardoli, a historic town known for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s civil disobedience revolt against British Raj in 1928, Rahul sought to take the ownership of Sardar’s legacy saying that the great son of Gujarat remained a Congressman throughout his life.
Criticising Modi’s initiative to build a ‘Statue of Unity’, he said without understanding Sardar and his ideology - love, brotherhood and taking everyone along - a leader (Modi) in Gujarat is trying to build a statue of Sardar.
In a more personal attack, he said Sardar Patel was of the opinion to ban RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and cautioned it would destroy our nation. “Now a man who spent his entire life with RSS is trying to construct the statue of Sardar. He wants Congress-free India. Congress is not an organisation, it’s an ideology. And Sardar and Gandhi gave their life for this ideology. On the one hand he wants to eliminate Sardar’s ideology and on the other he wants to build a statue.”
On Modi referring to his past as a tea seller, Rahul said, “The entire country does some work. Some make tea, some drive taxis, some are farmers. We need to respect everyone but someone who “made a fool of people” was not worthy of being revered.”
Rahul tried to strike a chord with the tribals saying the Congress Government gave Rs 55,000 crore for the development of tribal area and asked the audience, “Did you see the moneyIJ “ He also raised the issue of the lokayukta controversy in the State besides the lack of information commissioners even as he sought to highlight the UPA Government’s initiatives like RTI Act and Food Security Act, among others.