Kochi: In what’s seen as the launch of the Congress-led UDF’s election campaign in Kerala to the Lok Sabha polls, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed both the BJP and the CPI-M for dividing the people.
Gandhi said this to over 50,000 activists, including 25,000 women, from booth committees of his party.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wasted five years of India’s time by telling one lie after another. He said two crore jobs would be created every year but what happened was that 15 of his close business friends got a maximum income guarantee when thousands of youths got nothing,” said Gandhi.
He told the gathering that the first thing a Congress-led government would do after the Lok Sabha polls would be to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill.
“Like we wrote off farm loans in the three states that we just won, we will do it for the entire country. We will make up for the lapses of the Modi government by providing for low cost high quality education, improving livelihood by creating a minimum income guarantee scheme that will be credited directly to the bank account of every poor person beside improving the health and education sectors,” added Gandhi.
He said that Modi had destroyed not just several institutions but also even the judiciary and had come up with a fundamentally flawed GST.
“Four Supreme Court judges went to the media to say they are unable to work. The CBI chief was reinstated by the apex court but within hours Modi transferred him out. We assure the people that we will restructure the GST which will remove all the flaws,” said Gandhi.
Lashing out at the CPI-M government in Kerala, he said both the BJP and the CPI-M were one and the same and only their people have benefitted from government schemes.
“It’s been months since Kerala was hit by the worst ever floods and the promises of rebuilding Kerala by the CPI-M government here has not reached anywhere. Like the BJP cadres, this Left government has done only things that have benefited its cadres.
“Both these parties created an orgy of violence. No jobs have been created for the youths here. Just like Modi, they ignored the farmers. Here also the same thing has happened and as a result Kerala has gone back,” said Gandhi.
He said the Congress respects the right of women, tradition and culture of the state.
“The Congress is the only party that can keep all the people together… Just as we fought the BJP in the three states that we won, in Kerala we will fight the CPI-M. While BJP and CPI-M says they have the cadres, you (Congress workers) should not underestimate yourselves. Please do not forget that it was the Congress which fought the British while the RSS was on its knees before the British,” said Gandhi to loud clapping.
“The CPI-M and BJP are convinced they have the answer for everything. But since you are humble, we can convince the people of India that we are going to beat both Modi and the CPI-M and then we will give a government that works for the people,” added Gandhi.
Gandhi arrived here in the afternoon and first drove to the residence of late Congress leader M.I. Shanawaz, the Wayanad Lok Sabha member who passed away in November.
After that he drove to the venue to address the party meeting.
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]