Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi launched a blistering attack on Modi government citing rising prices, unemployment, poor implementation of GST and poor state of affairs of farmers and small traders as he embarked on his second three day trip to Gujarat on Monday from Hathijan in Ahmedabad.
Latching on to the `Vikas Gando Thayo Che (Development has gone crazy)’ meme, Rahul imitated none other than Narendra Modi himself when he went all out interactive and questioned, “Yeh Vikas ko kya ho gaya hai?’ eliciting “Vikas has gone mad” response from the people at his public meeting in Santram Temple in Nadiad. “BJP has sent Vikas to the mental hospital. We will have to pull Vikas out of the hospital”, said Gandhi.
Gandhi’s first day of the threeday tour to central Gujarat saw the Gandhi scion stop at 70-odd places in his specially designed luxury bus painted, “Navsarjan Gujarat: Congress Aave Che”.
“Jay Maharaj to all” wished Gandhi at Santram Temple..”I met Guruji inside the temple. This temple gives free education, health and other services irrespective of whether they are rich or poor. Modiji and BJP talk of religion but not like Maharaj here who said one should help all. BJP helps only industrialists. They talk of religion only to get votes”, Gandhi alleged. Gandhi hit out at the NDA government over the state of economy , and demanded that the rates under the Goods and Services Tax not exceed 18 per cent.
“In spite of our request to the Centre, they are charging rates of over 18 per cent under the GST….They should revert to the 18 per cent tax slab,” Gandhi said, adding high taxes have ruined many businesses. Gandhi also attacked the government over its failure to create jobs. India, he said, is competing with China these days. China creates 50,000 jobs every day, but the country under the Modi government is able to generate just 450 jobs per day, he said.
“This is because their focus is on development of 100 big industries. When the Congress comes to power, it will develop small and medium scale industries which can create many more jobs, Demonetization resulted in the loss of business of many small traders, he said. “Prime Minister and the people of state know that the so-called Gujarat model has failed. If we come to power, we will propagate the old Gujarat model under which cooperative societies like Amul developed,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘temple run’ goes on
In the first leg of his travels, Gandhi deployed “soft Hindutva”, he started his tour from Dwarka, where he visited the Dwarkadhish temple, Chotila temple, Khodaldham in Kagvad, Jalaram Bapa temple in Virpur, and Dasi Jivan temple near Jasdan. He focused on wooing farmers, traders, and those affiliated to religious and social organizations. On Monday, in a bid to attract the Patidar votebank, Gandhi paid his respects at Sardar Patel birthplace in Nadiad. Continuing with the trend of peddling soft-Hindutva, Gandhi made diligent stops at temples, namely the Santram Temple in Nadiad, Ranchodrai Mandir in Petlad and Baba Ramdevji Maharaj temple in Nadiad.
