Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi
Continuing his tirade against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS want India to surrender its voice. “What is happening today is the systematic capture of India’s democratic institutions. By the PM, bureaucrats and the RSS,” Gandhi said. Taking on the prime minister directly, Gandhi said, “The emperor is completely naked but nobody around him has the courage to tell him.”
Describing the current situation in the country as “strangulation of reality”, Gandhi accused the government of crushing people’s voices and trampling the poor and weak.
“BJP wants to paint a lie over India so that they can return it to an age of kings and no questions, where people were humiliated by power; where people’s voices were crushed, where the poor and weak were trampled upon. Where millions of Indians were untouchables,” he said while addressing a conference at Karnataka government’s ‘Quest for Equity’ event to mark the birth anniversary of founding father BR Ambedkar.
The Congress leader attacked the ruling dispensation on a wide range of issues. On demonetisation, Gandhi said the government called the economic policy as “a stroke of genius” publicly while they called it “insanity” privately.
“Thousands of businesses are wiped out due to demonetization, hundreds die, but instead of speaking to the Parliament, Modi spoke to Coldplay,” he said.
Last year, PM Modi had announced the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from public use with an aim to curb the menace of black money, fake currency, terror funding and corruption. The move was criticised as it left the country reeling under severe cash crunch and adversely affected the economy.
Commenting on the ongoing agrarian crisis, Gandhi accused the government of neglecting the plight of farmers.
“The government can silently forgive any amount of corporate debt, but farmers are forgiven nothing. Farmers commit suicide and the state looks away,” he said.
We must keep a firm grip on reality & never let them strangle it.
As Baba Saheb said let us “Educate, Agitate and Organise”#QuestForEquity— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 21, 2017
He also highlighted the atrocities committed against the minorities. “They say Rohit Vemula committed suicide. I call it murder. He was murdered by the indignities he suffered. He was killed because he was a Dalit.” Vemula, a research scholar, had committed suicide on the Hyderabad Central University campus last year. His death triggered widespread protests across the country.
“Mohammad Akhlaq is butchered because they say he stole a calf. It was a lie. Instead of questioning his brutal killing they ask whether the meat in the fridge was mutton or beef,” he added. Akhlaq was lynched at Bisada village in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri district in September 2015.
(With inputs from agencies)
