Hyderabad: In yet another scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over several issues including Rafale deal, Goods and Services Tax (GST), farmer loans, fuel price hike and women safety, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday challenged him for a debate ‘anytime, anywhere’ to discuss the issues.
“I am ready for a debate with Prime Minister Modi anytime, anywhere. Let us talk about Rafale, Anil Ambani and aircrafts worth Rs 1600 crore. He won’t accept this challenge. He has a 56 inch chest, but cannot say a word on the Rafale deal,” Rahul said at a rally in Hyderabad’s Saroornagar area.
“Prime Minister says that he is not a Prime Minister, but a ‘chowkidaar’ of the country. He took away the contract of Rafale aircraft from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and gave it to his friend. The aircraft that the UPA government discussed for Rs 536 crore, the same aircraft was bought by the Prime Minister for Rs 1600 crore. The company that was given the contract came into existence 10 days ago. Narendra Modi gave a free gift worth lakhs and crore of money to Anil Ambani by redesigning the Rafale deal. By doing so, he took away lakhs of jobs in the engineering sector from the youth,” Rahul added.
Rahul later went on to criticise the Prime Minister over several rape cases reported from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
“Prime Minister gave the slogan ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao,’ but he forgot to tell whom to save the daughters from? In Bihar, a BJP MLA commits rape, young girls are raped. Save the daughters from BJP MLAs. In our country, there are atrocities on dalits and women, but the Prime Minister does not utter a word,” Rahul said.
The Congress president also slammed the Prime Minister over fuel price hike.
He said: “In 2014, the price of oil in the international market was USD 140/barrel. Today, it is half of that at USD 70/barrel. When the price of petrol and diesel is falling all over the world, why is it going up in India?”
Talking about GST, Rahul said: “As soon as the Congress party will come into power, we will replace the ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ with GST. There will be just one tax and we will remove the things that the poor people use from GST.”
While speaking in run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul even accused the Prime Minister of “forgiving lakhs and crores of rupees of the rich people, but not helping the farmers.”
Besides Prime Minister Modi, the Congress president also took a dig at Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
“The (Telangana) Chief Minister earlier said that one lakh government jobs are vacant. He had promised jobs to the youth of the state. Today, every youth of Telangana knows that Chief Minister had not given jobs to even 10,000 youths in the last four years. There hasn’t been any notification or recruitment for these jobs. He even made promises to the farmers in the state. I feel sad to inform that 4,000 farmers have committed suicide in Telangana,” Rahul said.
“Earlier this was called ‘corruption,’ but now they call it ‘redesign.’ In Telangana also, your Chief Minister is an expert in redesign. He snatches land from the farmers and poor people. There was one project made in the remembrance of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. That too was later redesigned and renamed. Later, using a magic wand he pushed the price of the project to Rs 1,00,000 crore. No tendering, no transparency, the whole money went into the pocket of one family,” he added.
Rahul concluded his speech by inviting the youths of Telangana to join the Congress party.
“I invite the youth of Telangana to join the Congress party. Together we can fulfill your dreams. If Congress party comes to power, the voices of the people of Telangana will be heard,” Rahul said. (ANI)