Rahul Gandhi in Amethi: ‘Congress sees people as Hindustani, RSS through caste & religion’
Congress president Rahul Gandhi meets party workers at Amausi airport in Lucknow on Wednesday. Vishal Srivastav Congress president Rahul Gandhi meets party workers at Amausi airport in Lucknow on Wednesday. Vishal Srivastav
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that while his party sees people as “Hindustani”, the RSS sees them through their caste and religion.
Speaking to party workers at Fursatganj on the first day of his two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi, Rahul said: “When you see a person of this country… Hindu, Muslim, or of any caste or religion… You have a feeling of love… as you say that the person is Hindustani. This is the difference between you and RSS. (But) when a person from RSS sees anyone, they say he is a Hindu, he is a Muslim, Sikh, woman or a Dalit… We work to connect (with) people… we spread love and brotherhood… but they work to divide the country, spread hatred and anger.”
Rahul further said that the strength of Congress workers is their love for people and it is this ideology, “which would corner the BJP and RSS”. Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul said that farmers did not get loan waiver, but the prime minister waived loans of selected wealthy industrialists. Rahul also said that despite an issue like Doklam on the border, the prime minister was seen sitting on a swing with the Chinese president.
Hitting out at the Centre, Rahul said that its much talked about bullet train project was like a “magic” locomotive that may not materialise. “It would be built only when the Congress government is formed,” he said. Rahul claimed that the Centre’s demonetisation decision had done nothing but derail business activity at all levels. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken the “backbone” of small traders while benefitting big businessmen. “As much as Rs 2 lakh crore of 15 big businessmen have been waived off…The first task that Narendra Modiji did was that he broke the backbone of small and middle class businessmen,” he said. “He (Modi) snatched money from your pockets through GST and demonetisation and gave it away to Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi,” he added.
Rahul also launched ‘Shakti Programme’, a mobile app that would help workers to directly connect with the party leadership.
Later, Rahul went to Pure Dhingai village to visit the family of a farmer, Abdul Sattar, who had died on May 5 while waiting for his turn to sell his grains at a government-run mandi in Amethi. On Thursday, the Congress chief is scheduled to hold chaupal with farmers and visit villages before leaving for New Delhi in the afternoon.
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