Rahul, Priyanka march in Amethi, target BJP: ‘Every lane is the same’

“Every lane in Amethi is the same. The only difference is that people’s eyes have anger against the government. Even today, we have the same place in people’s hearts… we are together against injustice,” Rahul tweeted after leading a march with Priyanka from Jagdishpur to village Harimau in Amethi.

At the “Pratigya Padyatra” held ahead of Assembly election in the state, the senior Congress leader targeted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over inflation and unemployment.

#Amethi की हर गली आज भी वैसी ही है- सिर्फ़ जनता की आँखों में अब सरकार के लिए आक्रोश है।

दिलों में आज भी पहले सी जगह है-
आज भी एक हैं हम,
अन्याय के ख़िलाफ़!#PratigyaPadyatra https://t.co/ZAv0UpNjPf

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 18, 2021

“You can see the condition today. The country is facing two questions – unemployment and price rise. Neither does the Prime Minister answer these questions, nor does the Chief Minister… You must have seen the PM bathing in the Ganga (river) alone. But the PM can’t tell the country why jobs are not being created in the country… why prices are going up,” he said, referring to PM Modi’s visit to Varanasi earlier this week.

Rahul reiterated his “Hindu versus Hindutvawadi” jibe at Prime Minister Modi. “On one side is Hindu. On the other is Hindutvawadi. On one side is truth, love and non-violence and on the other is falsehood, hatred and violence. Hindutvawadi bathes alone in Ganga, but a Hindu will bathe with crores of others,” Rahul said holding a public gathering in Harimau.

This was Rahul’s second visit to Amethi, a parliamentary constituency he represented for 15 years until his defeat to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 general election.

The Congress leader brought up the government’s reversal on the contentious farm laws after a year of protests, and said the government still did not want to concede that hundreds of cultivators died during the agitation.

“First, he ( PM Modi) said that the three farm laws are for the benefit of farmers. Then farmers protested in all states. One year later, he says that he made a mistake and withdrew the laws. We asked in Parliament that 700 farmers were martyred in the protests and whether the families were given compensation or not. We got an answer that not a single farmer died and that they don’t know anything.” Rahul alleged.

Rahul was referring to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement to Parliament this month that the government had “no record” of farmers who died during their agitation against the laws. The minister was responding to a question on proposed compensation for those who lost their lives during the stir.

His attack comes at a time the central government has moved to repeal the three farm laws, which brought thousands of farmers — largely from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — to protest at Delhi’s borders in late 2020. Last month, PM Modi said in a surprise announcement that the laws will be withdrawn and offered an apology for not being able to convince a section of farmers about the benefits of the legislations. On November 29, the bill to repeal the laws was passed in Parliament.

On Saturday, Rahul also invoked the Congress’s ties with the constituency – once a Congress bastion —and said that this “this relationship will never break”.

“Some days ago, Priyanka came to me and said asked me to visit Lucknow. I told my sister that I would first visit Amethi and meet my family here… In 2004, I joined politics and fought the first election here. You taught me a lot and showed me the way in politics,” he said.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too tweeted, “There is an old relationship with Amethi – one of love and truth. It is not of politics, but of emotions. Thank you Amethi for the love and for raising your voice against BJP’s bad policies.”

There are five assembly seats in the Amethi parliamentary constituency. Out of these, Amethi, Jagdishpur, Salon, Tiloi are presently held by the BJP, and the Gauriganj seat is with the Samajwadi Party. The Congress is trying to regain its lost ground in Amethi in the upcoming Assembly polls early next year.

The Congress leader also criticised Prime Minister Modi over the India-China border standoff, alleging there was inaction by the central government. “Today, the Chinese Army is sitting inside our borders. They have taken land as big as Delhi and made it their own. Our PM didn’t say anything about it and didn’t do anything too,” Rahul said.