Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) while assuring Congress cadres in Uttarakhand to be fearless as the symbol of the party also signifies. The Congress leader said this while addressing a huge gathering of party workers in Rishikesh on Monday.
He said that the 'Hand' which is the symbol of the Congress party can be seen, understood and is a metaphor in all religions. "After noticing this aspect I asked veteran leader Dr Karan Singh the reason for it and he promptly replied 'Rahul, it (party symbol) means that one need not fear'. So the message of the Congress party is that the people of India should not fear anyone,'' he said.
launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader averred that there is a big contradiction in what Modi preaches and practices. He said, "On the one hand Modiji is seen working on a spinning wheel which signifies village industries but on the other hand he spends an entire day with top 50 industrialists of the country."
In a dramatic move, the Gandhi scion showed that the pocket of his kurta was torn and averred that "Narendra Modi wears clothes costing lakhs of rupees".
Rahul Gandhi blamed Modi for his purportedly autocratic way of functioning and said that the decision of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes was conveyed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) merely a day before the decision was implemented, which shows his scant regard for the institutions. He said that "recently Modiji had replaced Mahatma Gandhi on the calendar of Khadhi and Village industries. It would not be surprising if a person wearing the mask of Narendra Modi plays the character of lord Rama in Ramlilas", he opined.
The Congress vice-president also targeted the RSS for allegedly having little regard for the national symbols and said that till the year 2002 the national tricolor was not hoisted at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur and questioned as to why the RSS did not hoist the national flag and instead offered salute to a saffron flag.
Terming the fight of the Congress and the BJP as a clash of ideologies, Rahul Gandhi exhorted the Congress workers to wage a fearless electoral battle. Taking credit for the schemes like MNREGA and loan waiver of farmers, the Congress vice-president accused the BJP Government of not offering One Rank One Pension (OROP) to ex-servicemen.
He said that the State of Uttarakhand preserves environment, provides water to the whole country and demanded that the State should be compensated for these contributions in the form of green bonus by the Union Government.
A large number of Congress party workers and leaders including State Chief Minister Harish Rawat and State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay, among others, were present at the meeting.