Chandigarh: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, accusing him of not understanding the pain of farmers and the poor and alleging that his government frames policies only for his “billionaire” friends.
She also hit out at the BJP-led Centre over the issues of “Agniveer” and female wrestlers.
Addressing a Lok Sabha poll rally in Panipat district of Haryana after holding a roadshow in Sirsa, Gandhi announced that once the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) forms its government at the Centre, farmers will get a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops and their debts will be waived.
“One thing that has become clear in 10 years is that Modiji does not understand the pain of farmers, the poor, middle class, women and youngsters,” she said.
Panipat falls under the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, from where Haryana Youth Congress president Divyanshu Budhiraja is contesting the polls against former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Former chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was also present at Gandhi’s Panipat rally.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi led a roadshow in Sirsa to garner support for Congress nominee Kumari Selja for the May 25 Lok Sabha polls in Haryana.
At Panipat, she said the Modi government does not care about the farming community.
“Kisano ko peesne do, gareebi ke daldal mein rehne do’ (let the farmers suffer in poverty). This is the situation created by him (Modi),” she said.
Gandhi alleged that the Centre waived debts worth Rs 16 lakh crore of Modi’s “kharabpati” (billionaire) friends.
“Today, policies are made for big kharabpatis. If he understands the pain, then it is of his kharabpati friends, who already have lakhs and crores of rupees. But Modiji still waived their debts of Rs 16 lakh crore,” she said.
Slamming the Centre over the Agnipath scheme for short-term military recruitment, the Congress leader accused Modi of rendering those recruited under the scheme unemployed after four years.
She also said no martyr’s status is given under the scheme.
It has shattered the dreams of those aspiring to join the defence services, she said.
“Unemployment is at its peak and Modiji brings a scheme like Agnipath. Today, 70 crore youngsters are unemployed in the country,” Gandhi claimed.
“No scheme has been launched to end unemployment. They have shut all resources from which employment used to come,” she said, alleging that ports, airports, the coal and power sectors have been handed over to the prime minister’s “billionaire” friends.
The Congress general secretary also recalled how the Centre treated the female wrestlers who had taken on former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP leader.
She pointed out how protesting farmers were treated at Delhi’s borders and that more than 600 of them lost their lives.
Gandhi also reminded the gathering how the farmers were described as “terrorists and anti-nationals” and how a minister’s son in Uttar Pradesh “ran his car over the protesting farmers, killing four of them”.
The same minister has been fielded in the polls again by the BJP, she said.
Gandhi alleged that the BJP wants to change the Constitution.
By announcing demonetisation and introducing a “flawed” Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Centre has “destroyed” the small and medium industries, she claimed.
Alleging that BJP leaders have become so “arrogant” that they are now planning to change the Constitution, Gandhi asserted that no power on earth can change it.
She said it is the same Constitution that has given reservation and the right to vote to every Indian.
Referring to some of the guarantees given by the Congress in its manifesto, she said, once the INDIA opposition bloc forms its government at the Centre, every poor family in the country will receive Rs 8,500 every month in the bank account of one of its women members.
Gandhi said the Congress has a record of honouring its promises and cited the example of Karnataka where women are already getting Rs 2,000 every month.
At Sirsa, she slammed the BJP government over “unemployment, corruption and inflation”.
“There is a huge wave in favour of the Congress in Haryana. The state has the highest unemployment rate in the country, the price of which is being paid by the youngsters here,” the Congress leader said.
“The public is fed up with the rampant inflation, corruption and instability of the BJP and is going to bring about a big change,” she said in a post in Hindi on X.
She asserted that the Congress will win all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana with huge margins.
Flanked by Selja and former Haryana minister Kiran Choudhary, Gandhi waved towards people from an open-top vehicle during her roadshow that lasted for about an hour.
It was her first event in Haryana this election season.
Selja, a prominent Dalit face of the Congress in Haryana, is pitted against the BJP’s Ashok Tanwar.
Like Selja, Tanwar was also the president of the Haryana Congress when he was in the grand old party.
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