In a frontal assault on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused him of exploiting the sacrifices of our soldiers for political purposes, days after Indian special forces undertook surgical strikes that targeted terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In remarks reminiscent of mother Sonia Gandhi’s “khoon ka saudagar” (merchants of death) speech in Gujarat in 2007, Mr. Gandhi, addressing a public meeting here, thundered: “Jo hamare jawan hain jinhone apna khoon diya hai, Jammu and Kashmir mein khoon diya hai, jinhone Hindustan ke liye surgical strike kiye hain, unke khoon ke peeche aap chhupe hain. Unke khoon ki aap dalali kar rahe ho. Yeh bilkul galat hai” (You [Modi] are hiding behind the blood of soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir and those who carried out the surgical strikes for India. You are exploiting their sacrifices, which is very wrong.”)
But along with this emotive issue, Mr. Gandhi also zeroed in on a subject that has been causing heartburn in the armed forces – the anomalies in the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for them. “It is time you listened to the armed forces and gave them what they want as part of the Seventh Pay Commission.”
The challenge to Mr. Modi came from Parliament Street, less than a kilometre away from South Block, and a stone’s throw from Jantar Mantar, the traditional hub for all anti-government protests.
If the accusation that Mr. Modi was exploiting the sacrifices of our soldiers for political purposes was the climax of a 10-minute-long speech, the earlier part, too, took on the BJP-led NDA dispensation: Mr. Modi’s government had not fulfilled the BJP’s election promises, whether to deposit Rs. 15 lakh in every bank account after retrieving the black money stashed abroad, or to provide two crore jobs annually, or hike the minimum support price for farmers, he said, adding, “Clean India, Make in India, Connect India all have failed.”
‘Divisive agenda’
But where Mr. Modi had succeeded, Mr. Gandhi stressed, was in “dividing” the country — Jats versus non-Jats in Haryana, Patidars versus non-Patidars in Gujarat, or Hindus versus Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. “All this is harming the country,” he said, adding that what people wanted were jobs, the right prices for their crops, fair wages for labour and an enabling environment for small shopkeepers.
The speech came at the end of a 3,438 km, 26-day journey that started in Deoria in eastern Uttar Pradesh and covered 141 of the 403 Assembly segments of the State. Along the way, there were 26 khat sabhas, and close to 700 meetings.
Banking on loan waiver
The highlight of Mr. Gandhi’s kisan yatra was the 75 lakh loan waiver forms signed by farmers: the Congress has promised that if voted to power they will waive all agricultural loans in the State within 10 days, just as the party had done in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. At a time of great agricultural distress, this, the Congress believes, could be its secret weapon.
The U.P. unit’s vice-president R.P.N. Singh said the party’s target is to increase the number of signed loan waiver forms to two crore by the end of October.
Indeed on Thursday, Mr. Gandhi dwelt at length on the agricultural crisis in the country and of farmers whom he had met who were contemplating suicide as they were in dire straits.
Addressing the party faithful from a stage on a cordoned-off stretch of Parliament Street, flanked by the party’s U.P. team, as well as central office-bearers, Mr. Gandhi also spoke of what he had learnt along his journey.
The impact of Mr. Gandhi’s Deoria-Delhi yatra was also felt in the national capital as he touched several points in Delhi on his way to Parliament Street.
