Congress president Rahul Gandhi sharpened his attack against the NDA government on Wednesday as he launched his party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in Rajasthan at a farmers rally.

He criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not doing enough for the farmers. “The PM always plays on the backfoot, I want the youth of the country to play of frontfoot and hit a sixer.”

Sending out the message that he has kept promises made to farmers, Rahul Gandhi credited the newly formed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh for announcing farm loan waivers. “What Modi couldn’t do in four- and-a half years, we did it in two days,” he said.

Amid questions about the viability of the farm loan waiver, the Congress president said waiving farm loans is a small step towards addressing the agriculture distress and “a new green revolution (harit kranti) is needed to address the problem.”

Rahul Gandhi said the youth of the country are tired of Mr. Modi and his empty promises. “With demonetisation he wrecked small businesses. He waived off loans of India’s richest, but how many young entrepreneurs received financial support from Modi govt,” he asked.

The Congress chief continued his attack on the NDA government and Modi over the multi-crore Rafale jet deal.

Rahul Gandhi also targeted defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that though he spoke for 150 minutes she couldn’t reply to his questions on the deal.

“Chowkidaar could not stand in Lok Sabha for a minute during the debate on Rafale issue. 56-inch chowkidar ran away and asked a woman colleague to save him. We demand a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) probe of the Rafale deal,” he said.

First Published: Jan 09, 2019 15:44 IST