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    Rafale, CBI: Rahul devotes his speech to issues Ujjain crowd knows little about

    Synopsis

    Gandhi’s focus in the campaign remained on the Rafale scam and the government’s move to send the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief on leave.

    Rahul-Gandhi
    Rahul said Prime Minister Modi waived loans of his industrialist friends and let Vijay Mallya, Mehul Chowksi and Nirav Modi escape but would not waive loans of farmers
    A group of men in the crowd boisterously replied "Chor Hai" thrice after Rahul Gandhi as many times said “Chowkidar" at a rally in Ujjain on Monday, completing the 'watchman has turned thief' analogy and alleging graft in the multi-crore Rafale aircraft deal. Later, however, many of them said they did not know much about the deal with France to which the Congress president devoted much of his speech.

    “Some plane it is… god knows. But yes, we don’t have jobs. That is an issue,” said Ranjan Yadav, a young man who had come with his friends to listen to Gandhi. He said he related more to the parts of the speech that pertained to the lack of jobs. “Ask any youth, ‘What do you do?’ He will say, “Kuchh nahin karta (I am not employed). The PM speaks of Start-Up India, Stand-Up India, baayen dekho (look to the left) India, daayen dekho (look to the right) India… koi kaam ki baat to karte nahin (he doesn’t talk about any relevant things),” said Gandhi.

    Gandhi’s focus in the state election campaign remained on the Rafale scam and the government’s move to send the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief on leave. He said a “panicky, trembling and scared” PM removed the CBI director at 2 am on October 24 because the director was about to order a probe into the Rafale scam. Many in the crowd ET spoke to at the rally said they did not relate to either Rafale or the CBI saga.

    “Modi gets scared... really?” asked an aged man, Som Singh.

    Gandhi, however, tried to connect local issues to his pet national issues. For instance, he said Prime Minister Modi waived loans of his industrialist friends and let Vijay Mallya, Mehul Chowksi and Nirav Modi escape but would not waive loans of farmers of Madhya Pradesh. “Loan waiver is your right. The government owes it to you. I promised it in Karnataka and Punjab; I delivered. I don’t make false promises,” he told the gathering.

    Farm distress is a big issue in Malwa region where Gandhi spoke on Monday in Ujjain and Jhabua. He promised that if the party comes to power in the state and if the Congress chief minister dilly-dallies on farm loan waiver within 10 days of coming to power, he will change the CM. This appeared to strike a chord with the crowd in what has been a BJP bastion for almost 15 years. “Modi wants to only give free gifts to his friends,” said the Congress president.

    Alleging corruption in the Kumbh Mela held in Ujjain in 2016, Gandhi asked, “Who should probe this? CBI? But its director was fired at 2 am!” He cited a case in Ujjain where a woman was arrested for not paying an inflated power bill of Rs 1 lakh. “Vijay Mallya goes abroad after telling finance minister, but he is not arrested. PM calls Mehul Chowksi, ‘Bhai (brother)’. For me, the Ujjain woman is a sibling,” he said.

    Meanwhile, in Indore, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra asked Gandhi to specify his gotra if he is a janeu-dhari Hindu (one who wears the Brahminical thread), before visiting the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. Gandhi countered saying, “BJP talks of religion, but their religion is corruption.” He alleged that even the smallest of work in MP could not get done without corruption. “BJP/RSS people steal money from your pockets,” he said.

    Gandhi also accused the Centre of not implementing ‘one rank, one pension’ for the armed forces that did the surgical strikes and of “putting J&K on fire”. He alleged that the PM had insisted to France that India would buy Rafale aircraft only if Anil Ambani’s defence firm got a contract in the bargain. “Or HAL (state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) would have made jets. So Modi stole jobs of youth of MP,” said the Congress president.



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