Embarking on the third leg of his Navsarjan Yatra across south Gujarat on Wednesday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dismissed the World Bank’s report on “ease of doing business” in which India jumped 30 ranks, saying the country’s economy needed a certificate from its own people instead of “foreign institutions”.
Speaking at his first stop for the day at Jambusar in Bharuch district, Rahul attacked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the World Bank’s report. “Yesterday Arun Jaitleyji said some foreign organisation has certified that India has considerably improved in ease of doing business… Did he visit a local shopowner in India to ask what is the ease of doing business? The shopkeeper will tell him there is no ease of doing business after demonetisation and the (introduction of) GST. The finance minister should meet small and mid-sized businessman for five to ten minutes and ask if the situation had really improved. The entire country will shout and say that the ease of doing business is absent. You have destroyed it, your demonetisation and GST have ruined it,” Rahul said.
Earlier in the day, Rahul had put out a tweet in Hindi, taking off from a famous Mirza Ghalib verse to say that Jaitley was deluding himself. “Sabko maloom hai ‘ease of doing business’ ki haqeeqat, lekin khud ko khush rakhne ke liye ‘Dr Jaitley’ ye khayal achha hai (everybody knows the reality of ease of doing business, but this thought, Dr Jaitley, is good to keep yourself happy).” Rahul also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to deliver his promise on a crackdown on black money.
“Demonetisation broke the back of small businesses, who deal in cash. These are not businesses that indulge in black money transactions. But Modiji doesn’t understand that all cash is not black money, and all black money is not cash. Black money is that which is buried underground and stashed away in Swiss bank accounts,” he said and went on to refer to the case of Vijay Mallya, who is evading an ED probe by seeking asylum in the UK. “Did the money come back from the Swiss banks? What happened to Vijay Mallya? He is enjoying in London. What has Modiji done to bring him back,” he asked.
Taking a potshot at the PM’s decision to celebrate November 8, the first year anniversary of demonetisation, Rahul said, “They want to celebrate on November 8 despite having brought down the GDP of the country by 2 per cent. This is because this government is not of the poor, but of their few favourite industrialists, who are the only people supporting this government. Otherwise, I can only see anger everywhere.” The entire country had been reduced to tears, but the Prime Minister was not ready to accept that demonetisation was a huge mistake, Rahul added. He once again attacked the PM over the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST), reiterating it as “Gabbar Singh Tax”.
Addressing a cheering crowd, he said Gujarat was the only state where no community was happy and named OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani to buttress his point. Thakor, who recently joined Congress, shared the dais with Rahul. His convoy passed through predominantly Muslim-dominated areas of Jambusar, Aamod, Dayadra, Vagra in Bharuch district as well as Bharuch city, Ankleshwar town and onward to Valia. This phase of his yatra was in contrast to his earlier one in central Gujarat, where he passed through areas dominated by Patidars, OBC and Scheduled Tribes, stopping at every revered Hindu shrine on the way.
Across the Bharuch-Ankleshwar stretch, he had to travel in an open roof matador after the bus in which he was travelling was mobbed by the crowd, who refused to allow the bus to move forward. The roadshow saw a sea of people throng streets of Bharuch city, which is the stronghold of party MP Ahmed Patel. Rahul attended Valia-Ankleshwar Yuva Rojgar Sammelan where he attacked the Prime Minster over setting up of the Tata Motors’ Nano car plant.
“Modiji made promises to farmers while acquiring about 6.5 lakh acres of land and giving it away to his chosen industrialists. But they did not set up factories there. If they did, they were like Tata Nano. He gave Rs 33,000 crore for Nano plant. He even gave your land to the company. I want to tell you that the government could have waived all your farm loans with that Rs 33,000 crore… Though Modiji gave that much money to the company, you will hardly see any Nano car on roads. This is Modiji’s Gujarat model, where you do not get anything back despite giving that much money to corporates,” he added and alleged that key sectors, such as education and health, have been also gifted to the corporates.
During his earlier interaction with farmers at Dayadra, Rahul accused the PM of “peddling lies” to farmers, tribals and fishermen. He also launched a scathing attack on Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, stating that it failed to generate employment. Rahul is scheduled to leave for Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh on early Thursday morning to meet the victims of the NTPC plant blast.
At least 20 people died in the blast. He received a call while addressing a gathering at Mandavi, after which he announced that he will be leaving for UP. He is likely to join the roadshow on Thursday afternoon. Till then, Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot and Bharatsinh Solanki will be leading the yatra, party sources said. The party has invited Chandrika Solanki, who is leading the protest of ASHA and Anganwadi workers for better remuneration to meet Rahul during the three-day yatra.
