Lauding the leadership qualities of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “Mr. Gandhi does not just speak Mann Ki Baat , but listens to the voice of the farmer, the young, and the exploited.”
Criticising the Central government’s policies, he said “Narendra Modi is running the NDA government like an elaborate event management and public relations exercise.”
Addressing delegates at 84th AICC Plenary Session in New Delhi, Mr. Siddaramaiah hit out at the Hindutva politics propagated by the ruling NDA government led by BJP and said the Congress party should stand up to the challenge and reject pseudo-national concepts that are imposed on the nation by Hindutva forces. “We need to re-orient the national narrative on real issues of development.”
“The forces of Hindutva have actually borrowed their ideological sustenance from the fascist thinkers of Europe, particularly of Germany and Italy. Their concept of nationalism emerged in the 1920s,” the Chief Minister said.
Stating that real issues faced by the youth, farmers, women and minorities are being camouflaged by massive advertisements and headline management, the Chief Minister said the Congress needed to consistently raise issues of agrarian distress, youth unemployment, slow growth of economy, and “misplaced priorities of the Central government like the bullet train.”
