Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday flayed the Centre for selling off public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the UP government for not filling up 12 lakh vacant posts as she accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of "working only for the rich" and its "big industrialist friends".
The Congress general secretary also slammed the Centre over the now-repealed farm laws which she alleged would have benefitted "big industrialist friends of the government" at the cost of farmers’ hard work.
Addressing a poll rally in Tamkuhi Raj area of Kushinagar in support of Congress candidate and its state unit president Ajay Kumar Lallu, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also hit out at the government for inflation, high fuel prices and electricity bills, farmers’ woes, among others. She asked why the situation was such in the last five years that the youth were unable to find jobs, small traders and businessmen were worried over new policies being announced, farmers could not earn a living, women were hit by inflation and concern for their safety and security.
“How did such politics flourish here? For whom are these policies being made? It is time to open eyes and understand this. The politics being done in this state and in the country is only for the rich, only for a select few industrialists," Priyanka Vadra said.
She said employment was generated either by agriculture sector or middle-size businesses, government jobs and public sector undertakings (PSUs) like BHEL, ITI, Railways, etc. which were nurtured by the Congress but these public property had been sold off by the BJP.
“There are 12 lakh vacant government jobs but the UP chief minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both of whom talk big, had failed to fill up these 12 lakh posts. Today during the elections, they come and say to you that they have provided four lakh jobs when they had promised 70 lakh jobs," the Congress leader said.
Priyanka Vadra alleged that the Centre had sold the country’s properties to two big industrialists who fund the BJP.
“The airports, the ports, and big companies of the country have been sold. For whom are the state government and the Union government working? For whom are these policies being made?" she asked.
“On one hand, they say they will provide people with jobs and on the other, they have sold every institution which offered employment," she added.
The Congress leader said the youth had been "forced to migrate" out of the state in search of jobs while many were "forced to waste" four-five years even after clearing exams as they kept waiting for appointments.
“What kind of ‘antaryaami’ (omniscient) are you that you do not even know about the plight of the people," she said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She accused the government of "deliberately" keeping people jobless, unemployed and disempowered as it knows the public will not question them.
“They know they will come during election times and talk about religion, caste and you will blindly vote for them. They have realised this. It is a big mistake you have committed in your state by allowing such politics to flourish for decades," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said.
"You trusted these politicians. They know that the public is gullible, that they will come during elections, talk to women and men on religious lines, caste lines for vote and they need not work," she added.
Before the public event, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress party in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, held road shows in Kushinagar and nearby Ballia and Deoria districts in the eastern part of the state.