Modi govt busy with songs, dance when country facing drought: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the NDA government over the mega event marking its two years in office, saying farmers are committing suicide for want of water in Maharashtra, but the Modi dispensation is busy celebrating “with songs and dance with Bollywood stars”.

Addressing party workers during Congress’s ‘mashal julus’ (torch rally) to protest alleged power and water shortage in Delhi, Gandhi also targeted Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal saying the latter speaks only on issues like odd-even and pollution, “but doesn’t work”.

He also suggested the AAP leader is insensitive to “pain of poor”. “Two years have passed… there is drought across the country. In Vidarbha and Marathwada in Maharashtra, farmers are committing suicide, killing themselves. “And here, at India Gate, two years are being celebrated, function has been organised, people from Bollywood have come, songs and dance have been arranged for,” Gandhi told the gathering amid sloganeering against both Modi and Kejriwal.

Seeking to differentiate himself from Modi and Kejriwal, Gandhi said he believes in “politics of truth” in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology and not in “making false promises”. Hitting out at two leaders, he also claimed the duo think they can fool all people all the time in India. “… Even if people of India tell me speak lies in politics, I can’t do it. It’s not in me. I may have suffered for speaking what I feel, I don’t make false promises. But I can see, slowly, people of India and Delhi are realising that this country cannot move forward on false promises, not by hollowness, but blood and sweat,” he added.

He also exuded confidence that the Congress party, which he described as an organisation of “blood and sweat and not public relations”, will return to power in forthcoming local body polls and also during next assembly elections.