Latur / Mumbai: Former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its silence over the collapse of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) Bank. Addressing his second election rally in Chandivali constituency in Mumbai, the Congress leader dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on corruption, about unemployment, about farmers suicides or at least about the PMC. Stating that the BJP would not dare talk about the PMC bank as the board of directors are closely related to the BJP leadership.
The Gandhi scion asked the government as to how would it return back the hard earned money of the depositors. The former Congress president charged the BJP of allowing this loot of poor people and giving it away to the rich people. Earlier in the day while addressing his first election rally at Ausa in Latur district he argued that the BJP has no concrete issue to put before the people and hence is harping on Article 370, or Kashmir, or show the youth the moon.
He lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for its false promises, stating that the unemployment rate in the country is at an all-time high in the past 40 years. Rahul Gandhi wanted to know why Modi and the media failed to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping hard questions over the Doklam issue during the Prime Minister’s recent informal summit in Tamil Nadu. He said that in 2014 the BJP had talked about Make in India, today Modi sips tea with the Chinese premier and talks about Made in China.
Interacting with the people, Rahul Gandhi asked the crowd “how is your mood? Is there unemployment? Are farmers getting right prices for their agricultural produce? Have the Modi government’s much promised acche din (good days) arrived. The media only showcases Prime Minister Modi walk in Corbett Park or about lunar missions. All this is good. But the youth of this country will not be fed by sending a rocket on the moon”.
Pointing to Modi government’s arbitrary move to demonetize the economy and introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that ravaged the lives of small traders across the country, he said that 2000 factories in India had shut down till date while the automobile sector was in doldrums. Rahul Gandhi further alleged that wealthy industrialists like the Ambanis and the Adanis who controlled the media were being exempted tax to the tune of more than Rs. 5 lakh crore by the Modi government.
Venting his ire on the media Rahul Gandhi further remarked “if you ask the people, what is their condition, one gets only two answers – the plight of farmers and soaring unemployment. But in the media, one never gets to hear about unemployment or about loans of farmers in Maharashtra that have not been waived”.
He accused the BJP government of diverting people’s attention from issues that really mattered. Gandhi stated that the textile and diamond industry in Gujarat is in shambles and the traders are harried over the harassment from the Tax Inspector. He wanted to know how many farmers loans had actually been waived off in Maharashtra. Pointing out that the ISRO was established under the Congress regime, he said that the Modi government was merely deriving political mileage from the Chandrayaan-2 lunar exploration mission.
Stating that Maharashtra was one of the foundation states of the Congress party, Gandhi remarked that the party’s ideology was in the blood of the people of the State.
Rubbishing the BJP’s claims of the Congress not having contributed anything to Maharashtra’s growth, Senior Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Congress had already given proof to the people of the State and the country of their work in the last 55 years.
