Back home after a week-long sojourn in Europe, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday resumed his offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mocking at the PM’s promise of ‘achchhe din’ and accusing the ruling dispensation at the Centre of creating an atmosphere of fear across the country.
In a tongue-in-cheek speech delivered before thousands of party workers and officials at the Talkatora stadium, Rahul asserted that the Congress will defeat BJP’s ideology and dislodge it from power in 2019. In an obvious reference to social media banters post-demonetisation, Rahul said it was for the first time that India’s Prime Minister is being “ridiculed world over” for taking such an “ill-conceived” decision.
Taking a dig at Modi’s 2014 lok Sabha election campaign line that “achchhe din” will come when the BJP comes to power, he said only Congress’ return to power in 2019 will herald good days.
Without shouting, Rahul tried to drive home his point by using a mixture of one-liners and punchy jibes that drew huge applauds from the audience.
“These people want to rule over the country by instilling fear. The Congress will defeat these people and remove them from power. We do not hate them or have anger against them. But we will defeat their ideology. Modiji keeps on saying that he is out to transform the country’s economy, that he will bring together all the things which will contribute to the steep rise in the income of the country. He knows now it is the beginning of the end,” Rahul said at the party organised Jan Vedna Sammelan.
“You look at BJP’s policies. Their entire aim is to scare the people of the country. Fear terrorism, maoism, demonetisation, scare the media. In two-three months, in the entire country, they have spread this fear,” Rahul said.
The Congress VP utilised the occasion to raise the issue of personal corruption against the Prime Minister, wondering as to why he was silent on the Sahara-Birla diaries despite the Opposition raising questions. At the end he also read out a message statement for the party workers by party chief and his mother Sonia Gandhi, who could not make it for the convention due to ill health.
The day-long national convention, called in the wake of demonetisation, saw top Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, coming down hard on Modi. Squarely blaming the Prime Minister for “undermining” institutions like the RBI, Election Commission and judiciary, the Congress VP said the ruling dispensation has also created fear among the media which he felt was not being able to carry out its responsibility as a watchdog effectively.
“We respected RBI’s independence. It is the financial bedrock of India and now it is being ridiculed. People in RSS and BJP are under the impression that nobody else’s opinion matters but theirs,” he said.
A combative Rahul, who was ridiculed by Modi some time back, gave back in kind mimicking him, especially his oft repeated “Mitron” (friends) reference, alleging that the PM always tries to instill fear among the people.
Taking an apparent dig at Modi, the Gandhi scion satirised a song from movie Namak Halaal, saying “Aapka toh lagta hai bas yahi sapna, ram ram japna garibo kaa maal apna (It seems your only dream is to take away money from poor while chanting the name of Ram)”.