Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi played on India’s border woes to appeal for votes at Rewari in Haryana on Thursday. Speaking at the same ground where Mr. Modi held an impressive defence veterans meet last year, Mr. Gandhi criticised the former for not living up to his promise of effectively guarding India’s disputed borders with Pakistan and China.
“When the Chinese President (Xi Jinping) visited, it was perhaps the first time a Head of State brought his Army along while he sat on a swing with Modi sahib. For six days there is firing on our borders and our government did not say a word,” he told a crowd of less than 3,000.
Rewari is known for the Kumaon regiment martyrs of Rezang La in the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962. The dominant agrarian Ahir community has a martial tradition and the region bordering Delhi has a concentration of retired security forces personnel. Congress candidate Ajay Yadav, a six-time MLA and Minister, is also a former Army captain.
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Mr. Yadav is the father-in-law of Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi’s daughter Anushka. Ms. Devi broke ranks with the fraternal Indian National Lok Dal, when she recently campaigned for the Congress in the seat, which has a significant population of migrant industrial workers from eastern India.
Mr. Gandhi compared Haryana’s prowess in sports to neighbouring Punjab where he blamed the Akali-BJP regime of losing the State’s youth to narcotics. “One out of every three (sports) medals are won by Haryana’s youth. Here we built stadiums and trained athletes. In Punjab, maximum youth are on drugs. Their government kept watching while a whole generation was destroyed.”
He added that the new slogan of Haryana should be Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan , Jai Pehalwan (hail the soldier, hail the farmer, hail the wrestler) in recognition of athletic milestones achieved by its residents.
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Mr. Gandhi also attacked the Union government for diluting provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. “The BJP government belongs to big business houses. The Haryana government gives 600 medicines free to you. Before Modiji went to America, U.S. pharmaceutical companies told him that they want to sell their medicines here. So, he removed minimum prices for medicines. Now the cancer medicine you bought for Rs. 8,000 will cost a lakh,” said Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. Gandhi also addressed rallies in Ferozepur Jhirka in Mewat and Sonepat’s Ganaur on Thursday. Rewari and Ferozepur Jhirka are Assembly segments of the Gurgaon parliamentary seat where former Congress MP Rao Inderjit Singh swept the Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket. Of the nine Assembly segments in this seat — which forms a contiguous suburban sprawl with the national capital — the Congress and the INLD hold four seats each although the BJP led in seven of these segments in the Lok Sabha polls.