Why do all thieves have Modi in their names: Rahul Gandhi

Addressing an election rally at Kolar, the Congress president alleged that the Prime Minister stole money from shopkeepers, farmers, traders and the poor and given it to the likes of Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi addresses an election rally in Kolar on April 13, 2019.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on April 13 launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he extended “undue favours to his industrialist friends who looted the country”.

Addressing an election rally at Kolar on April 13, Mr. Gandhi alleged that Mr. Modi stole money from the pockets of shopkeepers, farmers, traders and the poor and given it to the likes of Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya and “people who fled the country”.

Referring to the Rafale issue, he said, “100% chowkidar is a chor (thief)” and alleged that the Prime Minister stole ₹30,000 crore and gifted it to his “thief friends” such as Anil Ambani. “He (Mr. Modi) is leading a team of chor s (thieves),” Mr Gandhi said.

“I have a question. Why do all thieves have Modi in their names whether it is Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Narendra Modi? We don’t know how many more such Modis will come out,” Mr. Gandhi said.

“When we announced NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana), the face of the chowkidar [a reference to Mr. Modi] changed. He asked where will the money come from to implement NYAY. I am telling you Modi ji , the money for NYAY will come from your friend Anil Ambani,” he said.

“There is no action taken against business leaders such as Anil Ambani and Nirav Modi who had taken crores of rupees as loans and didn’t pay back. But farmers are jailed when they cannot pay their loans. Anil Ambani’s money will be distributed to the poorest of the nation,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Mr. Gandhi promised that the Congress would deposit ₹3.60 lakh in the bank accounts of the poor women in five years if the party comes to power. He alleged that the Modi government has cheated the people of the country by not implementing his 2014 election promise of depositing ₹15 lakh each in the bank accounts of citizens. In 2014, Mr. Modi’s major election plank was that he would bring back billions of dollars of ‘black money’ stashed abroad, Mr. Gandhi said.

“Did youths get 2 crore jobs,” he asked. Mr. Modi who promised of providing 2 crore jobs a year to unemployed youth in 2014 had stopped speaking about jobs and development about the country. There was no mention of providing jobs to unemployed youth in the BJP manifesto, Mr. Gandhi claimed.