Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of indulging in political exploitation of the sacrifices of soldiers after the surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
“Jo hamare jawan hain jinhone apna khoon diya hai, Jammu & Kashmir mein khoon diya hai, jinhone Hindustan ke liye surgical strike kiye hain, unke khoon ke peeche aap chhupe hain. Unki aap dalali kar rahe ho. Yeh bilkul galat hai. You (Modi) are hiding behind the blood of soldiers in Jammu & Kashmir and those who carried out the surgical strikes for India. You are exploiting their sacrifices, which is very wrong,” Rahul said addressing a rally in the national Capital marking the culmination of his month-long ‘Deoria to Delhi Kisan Yatra’ in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi’s “khoon ki dalali” comment soon made him the butt of ridicule on the social media.
‘Khoon ki dalali. ‘Maut ka saudagar; by Sonia, ‘khoon ki dalali’ by her son. Well played Rahul. U a true inheritor U wl finish Congress soon #SurgicalSelfGoal,” said a tweet.
Meanwhile, another tweet said: “My husband served in IPKF in Sl during Op Pawan in which 214 soldiers were killed bcoz of Rajiv Gandhi’s whims. DalaliIJ #SurgicalSelfGoal.”
“It’s just that the mafia blood is surfacing. 10 years of UPA could have taught him only dalali. So why blame him. #SurgicalSelfGoal,” said another tweet. “@OfficeOfRG what do u’ve 2 say about the “KHOON KI DAlAlI” done by ur DAD Rajiv in 1984 in Bhopal tragedy & Sikh massacreIJ #SurgicalSelfgoal ,” said another twitterati.
Political observers said Rahul’s irresponsible comments had done his party immense harm. Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ke saudagar” comment on Narendra Modi during the high-voltage 2007 Gujarat Assembly elections had boomeranged on the grand old party. Now Congress will have to do a lot to undo the damage that has been caused to the party by Rahul.
“The Indian Army has done its job for the country, you do yours,” the Congress vice-president said, attacking Modi. His attack comes a few days after he had praised Modi for his first Prime Minister-like action in two years in the context of surgical strikes.
Rahul’s month-long Kisan Yatra from Deoria to Delhi, however, ended amidst violence near Bhairon temple in the national Capital where two groups of Congress supporters clashed with each other. Congress leader Ashok Tanwar sustained serious injuries and he rushed to RMl hospital. The supporters of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda clashed with those of Tanwar. This is the third time that supporters from either side clashed during a public meeting. Hooda escaped unhurt in the incident. Tanwar and others, injured in the clash, were taken to a hospital. Reports suggest that the violence erupted when supporters of former Haryana Chief Minister Hooda tore up the posters of Tanwar, who is the president of Haryana Congress.
Movement of vehicles and the people who were travelling towards Jantar Mantar led to massive traffic snarls across the city. The cascading impact was felt on the major roads and the arterials as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace.
In a well attended rally at Jantar Mantar, Rahul said the people of the country elected Modi as Prime Minister and entrusted with the responsibility of helping farmers and soldiers. “You should help the farmers of the country. You should provide more money to the Indian Army under the 7th Pay Commission, that is your responsibility. This is why people of India have elected you and this is the truth,” he said.
The Congress leader also accused Modi of dividing the country on religion and caste lines and not fulfilling his poll promises of providing employment to youth, higher support prices for farm produce among others. He also charged the Prime Minister with helping a select few industrialists while not waiving debts of farmers.
“Modiji you promised two crore jobs per year that has not been done... You talked about ‘Make in India’ that is not happening, you talked about Swachchh Bharat that is also not visible... You only did one thing - that of dividing the country on religion and caste lines,” he said. Seeking to counter Modi’s attack on Congress for having not done anything for the country in the past 70 years, Rahul said, “We have given them justice”.
“In my last 30 days experience what I learnt is that - even the smallest politicians think they know how this country should run. With humility, I want to tell you that in last 30 days poor people taught me about India, agriculture... No one knows better than them,” he said.
Earlier in the day lashing out at the Modi Government in a rally at Meerut, Rahul said only the Prime Minister and his friends were “happy” as money has come into the pockets of 15 top businessmen and not the farmers, labour and small shopkeepers. “Modiji had said he has a 56-inch chest and will fight out corruption, but he instead brought out a ‘Fair and lovely scheme’ for turning the black money of the country’s thieves into white.
“The money has not come into the pockets of farmers, labour and small shopkeepers, but went into those of 15 top businessmen. Only Modiji and his friends are happy,” he said. Training his guns on the family-led Samajwadi Party Government in the State, Rahul said, “Uttar Pradesh will not have a Government of just 15 persons. The Government here will be of farmers, labour, small shopkeepers, and of people from every religion and caste.” The Congress vice-president said he will force the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre for a loan waiver for the distressed farmers.
Rahul also attacked the Modi Government saying it has failed to provide jobs to youth in the country.
Gandhi, 45, travelled across 140 of Uttar Pradesh’s 400 constituencies. Uttar Pradesh will vote early next year, though the dates have not yet been announced. Rahul led his party’s campaign for the national election in 2014; the Congress confronted its worst-ever result. Since then, the party has floundered in elections in key States like Assam and Kerala, with Gandhi unable to reverse a trend of electoral defeats.
Majority of those who had come to attend the rally belonged to Rajashan, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.