In a desperate bid to woo the poor ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday promised minimum income guarantee for every poor person if the Congress is voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers and sisters suffer the scourge of poverty. If voted to power in 2019, the Congress is committed to a minimum income guarantee for every poor person, to help eradicate poverty and hunger. This is our vision and our promise,” the Congress president observed.
Rahul made these remarks at the ”Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan” held at Atal Nagar (Naya Raipur) to express gratitude to Chhattisgarh’s people, particularly farmers, for voting the party to power in the State after a gap of a decade and half.
Amid clapping and loud cheering by farmers who assembled at the rally from across the State, Rahul said no Government in the world had taken a step for ensuring a minimum income guarantee for every poor person.
Rahul visited the State for the first time after his party was voted to power in the mineral-rich State in November Assembly polls with a brute majority. The Congress won 68 seats while the BJP which ruled the State for 15 consecutive years was reduced to just 15 seats in the 90-seat Assembly.
He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP alleging that they had no money to waive loans of farmers but had no hesitation when it came to waiving loans of industrialists. He accused Modi and the ruling BJP of trying to create two Indias — “one of the Rafale scam, Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and the other of the poor farmers”.
He said the new Congress Government took a decision in 24 hours to waive farmers’ loans in Chhattisgarh, something the BJP could not do in 15 years. “Whenever we spoke of loan waiver, the BJP said they don’t have money. In Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he does not have money. In Delhi, Prime Minister Modi said he does not have money. They don’t have money for farmers’ loan waiver but they can waive loans of India’s 15 richest industrialists,” Rahul stated at the massive rally. “What the BJP could not do in 15 years, we did in 24 hours. There is no lack of money,” he said.
Criticising the PM, Rahul said, “He (Modi) is taking money from the Indian Air Force and putting it in the pocket of an industrialist.” He was referring to the controversial Rafale deal.
The Congress president said the BJP tried to dilute the Congress’ land acquisition bill which guaranteed four times the price of land to farmers compared to the market price and also ensured that if industrialists did not start work in five years, the land would be returned back to farmers.