Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday continued his attacks on the BJP government and particularly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging massive irregularities in the deal to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from French company Dassault.
Launching the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State of Gujarat, Mr. Gandhi said the “Rafale deal has exposed how PM Modi helped Anil Ambani get a lucrative deal at the cost of HAL, a central government PSU.”
Massive turnout
“The entire country knows that PM has helped his industrialist friend Anil Ambani in Rafale deal,” Mr. Gandhi said addressing a huge rally of tribals and farmers. “To help Anil Ambani, Modi’s PMO conducted parallel negotiations with French, which undermined the negotiations being done by the Ministry of Defence.”
Speaking at a Jan Aakrosh Rally in tribal-dominated Valsad district in south Gujarat, Mr. Gandhi accused the Modi administration of insulting the tribals, farmers and favouring a few industrialists.
He also talked about how only a select few industrialists were benefiting under the Modi government while farmers, tribals and poor were left to fend themselves. “If voted to power, we will introduce minimum income guarantee scheme for poor,” he said, referring the Congress party’s major election promise.
Meanwhile, at a rally in Valsad, Mr. Gandhi was caught off-guard when a woman party worker planted a kiss on his cheek when he was meeting the local leaders. The video of the woman kissing Mr. Gandhi went viral on social media platforms in Gujarat.