Patna, February 02: A day after lashing out at the Shiv Sena and the MNS for attacking north Indian migrants in Maharashtra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he would not remain silent if Indians are attacked anywhere in their own country.
“I am not interested in what Thackerays say; I’m interested in only one concept. That India belongs to every Indian, that every part of India belongs to every Indian,” Rahul, who is on a two-day visit to Bihar, told a press conference.
He added that “the people from Bihar and UP have the right to go anywhere in country… I’m not going to remain silent if people are attacked in their country”.
Rahul, who had said yesterday that the NSG commandoes who killed terrorists during the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 included men from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, repeated his remarks today and asked: “Why didn’t (Uddhav) Thackeray asked NSG commandoes from Bihar and UP during the 26/11 attacks to go back?”
Reacting to Rahul’s remarks, Uddhav today wrote in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana that the Congress leader’s comments are an insult to the 26/11 martyrs.
‘Nitish govt a failure’
Meanwhile, focusing on his ‘Bihar mission’ Rahul lashed out at the Nitish Kumar government for failing to implement welfare schemes of the Centre in the state.
“Nitish Kumarji’s intentions are good, but his government has failed badly in the implementation” of schemes, Rahul said.
The change that Bihar needs is not happening, the Congress’ ‘prince’ added.
He refuted the charge of bias against Bihar and said there was no lack of assistance to Bihar from the Centre. In fact, the Congress-led UPA government has given more money to Bihar than the NDA, he added.
“NREGA money is not reaching the end user here… middlemen are siphoning the money. Even money meant for education is not reaching the schools in villages,” he rued.
He even attacked the Nitish government for failing to effectively utilise the Kosi flood relief central assistance of Rs 1,000 crore, saying a lot of it didn’t reach the affected people.
Commenting on the price rise, Rahul said it was mainly due to two reasons: One, international events, and second, hoarding.
Checking hoarding is a state government’s responsibility, in which they have failed badly, Rahul told reporters.
–Agencies