Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of shaping the Army’s 2016 surgical strike across the Line of Control (LoC) into a “political asset” and being “unsuccessful” in creating job opportunities for the youth.
“Like during the Narendra Modi government, surgical strikes were conducted thrice during Manmohan Singh government. Are you aware of it? Mr. Modi actually reached into the Army’s domain and shaped the surgical strike into a political asset.” The surgical strike was made public as the BJP was fighting elections in Uttar Pradesh, he alleged.
Addressing a gathering at Udaipur in poll-bound Rajasthan, he claimed that the non-performing assets (NPA) of banks was ₹2 lakh crore during the United Progressive Alliance rule and it was now ₹12 lakh crore.
“The government waived loans of 15 to 20 industrialists. The banking system is concentrated only for them. NPA is not of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, traders, doctors or lawyers,” he said.
Demonetisation, GST
On demonetisation and the GST implementation, he stated that people have confusion about these. “It was a scam, which opened doors for big companies. Demonetisation and the GST shattered the economy and broke the common man’s back.” The NDA government had failed to create job opportunities for youth.
When asked about data privacy, he said IT companies have understood that India and China had large data. “Data should remain with people and not crony capitalists. That is our belief.”
Though the country had medical insurance schemes like ''Ayushman Bharat,'' it did not have good hospitals. “We cannot run the country without pumping money into public health and education sectors,” he observed.
“India will surpass China if we have the right government for the next 15-20 years. Respect those who have skills, India will surpass China. China has a lead but we have not lost the competition,” he added.
