Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he does not agree with U.S. President Barack Obama's views that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the ‘man of action’ and that he was shaking up the “bureaucratic inertia.” He criticised Mr. Modi's way of functioning and charged him with trying to control everything from Delhi.
Lamenting that the BJP-led government at the Centre failed to give real power in the hands of poor people and that the BJP wanted to control everything, Mr. Gandhi, who is on a two-day trip to his parliamentary constituency Amethi since Wednesday, said: “Praises are a different thing... People should know the truth.”
“Prime Minister has a different thinking...That the entire country is run by sitting in Delhi and all works are carried out and the entire development is supervised from Delhi,” he added. “On the other hand, my thinking is that people should get benefits of the Panchayti Raj, the MGREGA, the Right to Information and the Right to Food and Education...This is the difference between the thinking of those in power and ours. We want to give power and strengthen women and youths,” he said at a function here.
Mr. Gandhi, who inaugurated a new building of Indira Gandhi eye hospital and took part in some other functions besides meeting villagers from his constituency, had to face a peculiar protest from some of his partymen who raised pro-Priyanka Gandhi slogans in front of him and demanded that she be given the charge of the Congress to take on challenge being posed by Mr. Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday began her two-day visit to her Lok Sabha constituency Rae Bareli where she met residents of over half-a-dozen villages and discussed problems being faced by them. She also inspected the rail coach factory which is coming up in her constituency. She also met some protesting teachers when they tried to block her cavalcade demanding better wages.
