Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday observed that Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi claimed to be pro-women but represented an organisation known to nurture a patriarchal ideology. “The Lok Sabha elections of 2014 is a fight between two ideologies and one should be conscious of the RSS’s [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] thinking [and its] leader [Golwalkar’s belief] that India [made] a huge mistake by giving voting rights to women. And don’t forget that Modi, who now claims to be pro-women, also represents the same ideology.”
Addressing rallies in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan and Bilaspur, Mr. Gandhi slammed Mr. Modi for his alleged links with the industrial house of the Adanis and said “only one person’s wealth grew over the past decade”. He alleged that Mr. Modi allotted free land worth Rs.10,000 crore and free power worth at least Rs.20,000 crore to the Adani group. The business house, as a result, increased its net-worth from from Rs.3,000 crore to Rs.40,000 crore in Modi’s tenure, claimed Mr. Gandhi. “How could Modi claim to have developed the entire State of Gujarat and how much employment has he given to the youth?” he asked amid applause from Congress workers among the sparse crowd. The Congress leader also condemned former Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s alleged allotment of Rs.250-crore-worth land for free to his son for developing a cricket stadium.
