Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying while the country may burn, Dalits may die and women may be raped, the only question that troubled Modi was how to become the Prime Minister again.
He further alleged that institutions such as the Supreme Court were being trampled on and Parliament had been shut down by the Government claiming that if he was allowed to speak for 15 minutes on a host of issues, including the Nirav Modi scam, Modi would “run away”.
The twin burning issues of Dalit rights and women’s safety were at the centre of Rahul Gandhi’s all-out attack on Modi at the launch of the Congress party’s “Save the Constitution” campaign, as he asserted that constitutional values had been endangered under the Modi government and assured the people that his party would not let that happen.
He said while Modi often claimed that India’s global standing had improved under his Government, the image of the country built over decades of Congress rule had “in fact taken a beating” in the last four years. Going full throttle, he alleged that institutions were being packed with people who believed in the RSS’s ideology.
The Gandhi scion started his address to Congress workers at the Talkatora Stadium, where the party’s year-long programme was launched, by quoting from what he described as a statement by the prime minister.
Modi saw spirituality in the sanitation work done by the Valmiki community, he said, adding, that this was the “mindset” of the prime minister. But people know there was no place for Dalits, weaker sections of society and women in his heart, he added.
“Many Dalits die, atrocities are inflicted on minorities, may the country burn, may women be raped, Narendra Modi is interested in only becoming the prime minister (again). He is interested in doing only those things which will make him prime minister (again),” he added.
Attacking the prime minister on employment and other promises made by him before the last lok Sabha polls, he said Modi would now come up with new promises for votes.
Modi’s earlier slogan of ‘Beti Bechao, Beti Padhao’ (Save daughters, educate them) had become ‘Beti bachao’ (Save daughters) from the BJP and its leaders, Rahul said in a reference to the alleged involvement of a BJP MlA in a rape case in Unnao. Referring to International Monetary Fund chief Christine lagarde’s recent appeal to Modi to pay more attention to women’s safety, he said it was for the first time that an Indian prime minister had been addressed like this.
latching on to reports that Modi had urged BJP MPs not to give “masala” (information) to media persons, Gandhi said, in a reference to Modi’s monthly radio programme, that the prime minister wants the country to listen only to his “Mann ki baat”. The media, he added, will speak up in the next two or three months.
He asserted that only the Congress was capable of addressing problems that faced the nation. He also suggested that there was a difference between the Congress and the BJP governments when it came to protecting members of the media. “You won’t be able to ask a question like you asked me. That’s the difference between them and us,” he added.
Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Ashok Gehlot, Sheila Dikshit and Congress’s SC department chairman Nitin Raut were present at the launch of the campaign which will culminate on BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary next year.