In her first election rally in the national Capital for the February 7 polls, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, saying one is a pracharak (propagandist) and other dharnebaaz (one who always protests). A combative Congress chief urged voters to save Delhi from those who make only “hollow promises”.
“While one party has a pracharak, who only does ‘prachar’, the other is just a dharnebaaz, who is all the time busy organising dharnas. Delhi needs good governance and not false promises... the BJP and the AAP can only talk big and make hollow promises. There is a need to be careful of those doing politics of pretension. The country is not run by mere slogans,” said Gandhi while addressing a rally at Meethapur in Badarpur Assembly constituency on Sunday.
Gandhi said that after the Assembly polls of 2013 in Delhi threw up a hung mandate, the Congress had supported the AAP in forming the Government in Delhi, thinking they will deliver on their promises of making Delhi a better place. “But they could not run the government...and fled. People have given enough chances to the BJP and the AAP.
The Country is not run on slogans and rhetoric but solid action is required. Who is responsible for this situation in Delhi,” she said. “I ask them (AAP) whether it was not their job to fight corruption and provide cheap water and electricity. And then the other party (BJP) kept on delaying elections in Delhi and continued with its rule here in the name of President’s Rule,” she said.
The Congress chief also accused the Modi Government of “weakening” the schemes initiated by the previous UPA dispensation, including on food security and land acquisition, and doing nothing to check corruption despite the “golden promises” made during the lok Sabha polls. “You people must have remembered the huge promises made by the BJP during elections. Where is the black money they promised to bring back, where is employmentIJ Has inflation been curbedIJ” Gandhi questioned.
She said that while Modi had made big promises, she would like to ask him “where is the black money from which every citizen was supposed to get Rs 15 lakh each”.
She also raked up the issue of communal violence that took place in some parts of Delhi before the Assembly election dates were announced and alleged that it was being done to “capture power” in the State. “There are some forces which cause incidents like what happened in Trilokpuri and Dilshad Garden. Such forces will have to be defeated which spread the politics of hatred,” she said as she appealed to people to strengthen secular forces.
While hailing the previous Congress-led UPA dispensation for taking many “social and revolutionary steps”, Gandhi said that the Modi Government is snatching away the rights of the people by “weakening” those schemes.
Alleging that this was the “reality of their hollow promises” she said that while the UPA had brought the Food Security Act, “Modi Government is trying to bring such changes in it, which will limit the percentage of beneficiaries from 67 per cent to 40 per cent of the population. This is the reality of their hollow promises of ‘good days,” said Gandhi, adding that the country does not run by raising slogans and protesting.
Addressing farmers, she said that those who had showed them “golden dreams” had now deprived them of even fertilisers and seeds while they were even less likely to receive proper prices for their produce. “Why did we bring the land Acquisition ActIJ We did it to ensure that no one forcibly takes away the land of farmers.
What did the Modi government doIJ It opened the route for anybody to capture farmers’ land by bringing in the Ordinance. “We had worked hard to give the country the RTI Act, but those who talked of a corruption-free government have kept the post of CIC Commissioner vacant and given a free hand to corrupt people,” Gandhi said as she sought to warn people against voting the BJP to power in Delhi.
The rally, which was also attended by former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, attracted a huge crowd. Gandhi gave the security agencies some tense moments as she sat on open jeep and started doing roadshow in the area for 5-8 odd minutes. Political observers say it was subtle political rule to convey the people that she was very much with them.
The Congress president’s rally will help boost morale of party workers and candidates as they have been failing to lift their campaign as compared to the BJP and the AAP. Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh lovely, Harun Yusuf, Ajay Maken, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and several Congress candidates were also present at the rally.