Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday stormed into poll-bound Gujarat’s politically significant Saurashtra region, ripping apart the “Gujarat model” of development and the policies of the Modi administration that, according to him, serve only a handful of corporates at the cost of farmers, small businessmen, traders and poor.
Embarking on a three-day yatra with prayers at the historical Lord Krishna temple in Dwarka, Mr. Gandhi rode a bullock cart in a small village before interacting with villagers, candidly chatting with women on their day-to-day difficulties, problems of their village and what his party would do should it form the next government in PM Modi’s home State.
Strategically planned
In a strategically designed tour plan in the coastal hinterlands of Jamnagar district, Mr. Gandhi launched campaigning in the OBC-dominated areas of Dwarka, Khambhalia and the villages of Jamnagar, while Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel, who greeted the Congress leader on Twitter, was in the same district campaigning against the ruling BJP in Patidar-dominated Jamjodhpur and Lalpur.
“Today, there are two main challenges before Hindustan. You go to any region, Gujarat, Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh. Our youth don’t get jobs. PM Modi had promised to create two crore new jobs. So youth trusted him. We asked in parliament, how many jobs were created and the reply from the government was one lakh jobs,” Mr. Gandhi said, addressing around 3000 people in Bhatiya village near Khambhalia.
While chatting with the audience, he asked if any one got a job after Mr. Modi became PM and the crowd shouted “no no no”.
Numerous interactions
At every brief halt at villages on the Dwarka-Khambhalia highway, Mr. Gandhi’s campaigning was more in the nature of interactions, asking people, mostly farmers and farm labourers, about their problems and difficulties.
“When a small farmer is unable to pay his loan, he is declared a defaulter. But do you know that this government has written off one lakh thirty thousand crore debt of a few corporate groups. Today, ₹7 lakh crore corporate debt has turned non performing assets (NPA),” he said, blaming the Narendra Modi administration for the massive NPAs which have turned balance sheets of nationalised banks toxic.
‘Ruinous policies’
In Hanjrapar village with a population of 2000, Mr. Gandhi rode a bullock cart to enter the village chauraha (intersection) and then held interactions with farmers. He freely chatted with women of the socially conservative Ahir community.
In every brief address or interaction, he accused the Centre of ruining the economy with demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), completely neglecting farm distress and unemployment while promoting a few industrial groups at the expense of farmers, labourers and small businessmen and traders.
