Modi’s schemes benefited only Ambani, Choksi: Rahul

Silchar: Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said Modi and his schemes have only benefited rich businessmen like Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi in the last five years.
“The chowkidar took away your money by demonetisation and GST. The keys of the banks were handed over to thieves like Anil Ambani. Once we come to power, we will snatch the keys and give it to the youths of the Barak Valley,” Rahul told a gathering at Panchgram in Assam’s Barak Valley.

The Gandhi scion, who reached the venue almost two hours late by road instead of a planned chopper ride from Silchar airport due to heavy rain, added, “Have you ever seen a chowkidar in front of the houses of poor people? Modi is a chowkidar for taking care of the Ambanis and Lait Modis. The PM has a special bonhomie with capitalists and industrialists and doesn’t care about poor people who have suffered under BJP rule.”

Continuing his tirade against the PM, Rahul said, “Modi came here and promised a lot before the last general election. He told people that price rise would be controlled, black money will be brought back from foreign banks and each Indian citizen would get Rs 15 lakh in their accounts. But he has failed to fulfill even a single promise.”

Alleging that Modi ran the government to give benefits to only 15 people and gave non-stop money to the richest people of the country, the Congress president added, “After Congress comes to power in 2019, poor people will be given money.”

Shifting his focus on local issues, Rahul lambasted the BJP governments at the Centre and the state for their failure to reopen the Cachar and Nagaon Paper Mills, both units of the state-owned Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited. He said his party would revive the two mills within six months of coming back to power at the Centre. He also promised to make the Barak Valley a trade hub.

While production at the Cachar Paper Mill stopped on October 20, 2015, the Nagaon Paper Mill at Jagiroad was closed on March 13, 2017. At present, the workers of the two mills are in dire straits as they haven’t got their salaries for the past 28 months. During this period, altogether 51 mill workers have died.

The Congress president tried to lure the people of Silchar by saying that party nominee from Silchar and sitting MP Sushmita Dev will be made a minister at the Centre after the election. On empowering women, Rahul said his government would provide 33% reservation to women in government jobs. Besides, 20% of the country’s poorest people will get Rs 72,000 (Rs 6000 monthly) under the Nyuntam Aay Yojana. The amount will be directly deposited to the account of the woman member of the family, he said.