Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched scathing attacks against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in his home State and Punjab, singling out his “Gujarat model” of development and his “links” with the Adani Group for their assault.
A day after Modi took Punjab by storm with five back-to-back rallies, Sonia attacked the “Gujarat model” saying it was actually “Modi model” under which the “common man was suffering” in the State. “May God save the country from it,” she said.
“BJP’s chief campaigner is selling Narendra Modi model in the name of Gujarat model. What is happening in Gujarat under this modelIJ Sikhs living there for the past 50 years are being forced to leave the State. In Gujarat, every second five-year-old child is malnourished and those who get Rs 11 per day are not considered below poverty line in the Modi model,” she asserted even as she attacked the Akali Dal for joining hands with the BJP and not raising its voice for the Sikhs in Gujarat. Sonia was addressing her only election rally of Punjab.
Referring to land acquisition, Sonia said that around 45,000 acres of land in Gujarat had been given to one businessman at a cheap rate and under this model several people in the villages are still not getting potable water.
For his part, addressing rallies in Amreli and Botad towns in Saurashtra region, Rahul said Modi’s ‘Gujarat Model’ of so-called development is nothing but a sellout to select industrial groups at the cost of the farmers and the poor people. Rahul said Narendra Modi would have been in jail had lokayukta and RTI Commissioners been in place in Gujarat and accused BJP’s PM nominee of distributing huge tracts of land to Adani “for a pittance”.
“Gujarat’s precious resources have been doled out to one company at the cost of the sweat and toil of the people. Is this a development model he talks aboutIJ You usurp fertile lands of farmers and divert electricity to a single industrial group. No, this is not a Gujarat Model, it is Modi Model (of development),” he said.
The real Gujarat Model was evolved by Mahatma Gandhi where small-scale industries developed gradually and not for a select few who registered meteoric growth in no time, he added. like Sonia, Rahul also repeated his charges of Modi’s links with select industrialists, especially Adani Group, and accused him of favouring it with thousands of acres of land belonging to farmers and labourers at dirt cheap rates.
“The worth of power contracts given to the Adani Group is as much as ten times higher than the State Government’s budgetary allocation on health and education,” said the Congress vice-president. “Modi siphoned away your money and power to one single industrialist, but did he give you jobsIJ” he asked people who came to listen him in over 40 degrees Celsius temperature.
At a rally in Devgah Bariya in South Gujarat, Rahul also charged Modi with portraying himself to be more important than senior leaders of his own party. “Me… me ...and me is what BJP PM Candidate portrays,” he said. Sonia toed a similar line in Punjab. Referring to Modi, she said, “Their (BJP) ideology wants to take the country on that path where nation’s entire power rests with one person. They will take the country to a situation where the poor, weak and farmers will beg for their rights.”
She said the BJP’s ideology is of “hatred, narrow mindedness and consistent hunger to achieve power” at the Centre while, in contrast the ideology of the Congress is development of farmers, poor, weak and every citizen of the country. The Congress is for peace and communal harmony, she maintained.
Hitting out at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Sonia said that he only talks but never delivers and went on to highlight achievements of the UPA Government saying that it took commendable steps for the welfare of Dalits. She castigated the SAD-BJP for not being serious towards the welfare of Dalits. Both Sonia and Rahul enlisted the measures taken by the Government led by Congress for the empowerment of people.