Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged there was “over centralisation of power” in the central government blocking the functioning of the entire system and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not fulfilling promises.
“The problem with this government is that it thinks that only Modiji has all the knowledge, only he knows everything. Be it about Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir or One Rank One Pension, the whole knowledge is only with Modiji. So everyone is waiting for and looking at what he will do. There has been an over-centralisation (of power). And Modi is not saying anything. Thus the entire system is getting blocked,” he told reporters in Jammu when asked about the stalled NSA level talks between India and Pakistan.
Mr. Gandhi said that the country has tremendous capabilities and there are many people in the foreign service and finance ministry, in the government and outside government including in professional fields, who understand their job and know how to do it.
Referring to the volatility in the market and its impact on the economy, he said the BJP had promised to transform India but nobody has seen any transformation.
“The economy is going down. And now we saw what happened in the markets,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said the Prime Minister promised One Rank One Pension but the ex-servicemen are on hunger strike.
“The Prime Minister should take action. He has made promises and everybody knows those promises. I think it is about time the Prime Minister stops making commitments and start taking action. There was the promise about fixing the economy. There was OROP. Where is the promise about fixing corruption? Where is the promise about Rs. 15 lakh coming into the bank accounts of the people from Lalit Modi’s bank account. That is not happening. So he should start acting,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Accusing Mr. Modi of making promises one after another like bullet trains, Mr. Gandhi said that it was perhaps the first time that ex-servicemen, who fought and sacrificed their lives for the country, have to go on hunger strikes in Delhi and the Prime Minister is maintaining “silence”.
“The Prime Minister has not spoken a word. He used to speak a lot before elections promising he will do this, he will do that, OROP will happen, corruption will go. The issue of Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje (related to Lalit Modi controversy) was raised. He did not utter a single word.
“OROP issue was raised. Again he did not utter a single word. Pakistani is firing but there is no word from him. What has happened to his speech? Why is he silent? Speak up,” he said.
Responding to a question about the internal fight in Jammu and Kashmir Congress, he said he had not seen that kind of “energy” in Jammu so far and added that Congress was a democratic party.
“We believe in allowing people to speak unlike our opponent, the BJP where only one gentleman is allowed to speak, only one gentleman is allowed to say what he feels. Only one gentleman is allowed to make promises and only one gentleman is allowed to break promises,” Mr. Gandhi said.
