Don’t want one Hindustan for industrialists, another for common man: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul, who addressed three rallies in the state on Friday, also claimed that the central government was ready to write off loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of industrialists, but not the farmers.

“Either you don’t write off their (industrialists’) loans or give a loan waiver to farmers as well,” he said, while reiterating the party’s promise to write off farmers’ loans within 10 days of coming to power in the state.

In Mandla, he accused the BJP and the RSS of trying to attack the Constitution that safeguards the rights of the poor. “Step-by-step they are attacking the Constitution. Listen RSS and BJP people, we won’t let you change the Constitution given by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Congress.”

Targeting both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Rahul claimed that land was being purchased from the poor and the marginalised for the rich industrialists “who will make a land pool and sell at exorbitant rates 15 years later”.

“You (farmers) will become labourer (from landowners) later,” he said, while assuring that his party won’t let that happen.

Referring to the Vyapam scam, the Congress chief said it was a “common knowledge” which family benefited from it. He also accused Chouhan of making Madhya Pradesh the centre of corruption in the country.

Continuing his attack on Chouhan, Rahul said the rate of unemployment had doubled in the state in last 15 years. He said, the Congress will fill the backlog in government jobs on priority and bring industries to create more jobs. Claiming that farmers were not getting fair price for their produce, he said the Congress would set up processing units near farms.

Targeting Modi over the Rafale deal, the Congress chief said the Prime Minister used to talk a lot about corruption earlier, but had stopped mentioning it as an issue because he himself was embroiled in corrupt practices. “The CBI director was removed in the middle of the night because he wanted to probe the deal,” he claimed.

Calling demonetisation the “biggest scam” in the history of India, he said: “How come black money was exchanged behind closed doors? Why were no big industrialists and the rich seen in (ATM/bank) queues? Time has come to question them… Let’s question the Chief Minister first and later the chowkidar (in 2019 elections).”