Continuing his tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the poor farmers across the country had been sacrificed in Mr. Modi’s yagna against corruption and his demonetisation move had snatched away wages from workers and insulted their labour.
Mr. Modi had earlier this month described the decision to scrap high-value notes as a yagna against corruption, terrorism and black money and saluted the people for their “wholehearted participation” in it.
Addressing a huge public rally at College Ground in Baran, which is the political turf of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Mr. Gandhi said the vast majority of poor and farmers had been sacrificed in Mr. Modi’s campaign and one per cent people, who were holding black money, had invested it in real estate, gold, land and Swiss banks.
“Ninety nine per cent of the cash that Indians hold is not black money. The money women keep at home is not black money,” said Mr. Gandhi, while referring to Mr. Modi’s justification for demonetisation.
The Congress vice-president asked why the Prime Minister had not released the list of Swiss bank account holders in Parliament even after getting the information.
Claiming that the country’s economic growth had slowed down after the note ban, Mr. Gandhi said it was carried out without any planning and the cash crunch would continue for another six to seven months.
The farmers’ problems had not been solved and they were committing suicide everyday, he charged.
‘Economic divide created’
“The economic lockdown will continue to hurt the poor, farmers and workers the most. Contrary to Mr. Modi’s assurance, their hardships are not going to end by December 30,” said Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. Modi had only worked to create a divide in the country and extended benefits to the rich during the last two-and-a-half years, he alleged.
The Congress leader charged that the NDA government at the Centre had tried to sabotage the Land Acquisition Act by bringing ordinances and made an attempt to stop the pro-poor measures taken by the previous UPA regime.
‘Suit-boot sarkar’
“The BJP governments have failed to fulfil farmers’ demands for debt waiver, lower power tariff and proper price for their produce,” the Congress leader said. Mr. Gandhi also attacked the BJP government in Rajasthan while alleging that what Mr. Modi was doing in the country, Ms. Raje was doing in the State.
“A suit-boot government is sitting in both Delhi and Rajasthan,” the Congress vice-president said.
Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary Gurudas Kamat and a host of senior Congress leaders were also present at the rally.
