Dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “the idea of division,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi has said that the people of India are going to “pay the price for his politics.”
Mr. Gandhi said the Congress party would ensure that Mr. Modi’s politics did not succeed and he did not “make Indians hate each other,” while winding up his three-day tour of the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency with a roadshow at Mukkom in Kozhikode district on Sunday afternoon.
“Today, people are angry in India. They think this division will benefit them. But it is not going to benefit them. It is going to create a disaster,” Mr. Gandhi said. He pointed out that even though the Congress was fighting an ideological battle with the CPI(M), they could work together for Wayanad’s development.
“But I don’t have similar expectations from the Prime Minister and the BJP. I don’t expect that the Prime Minister will be fair either to Kerala or Wayanad,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said the Congress was fighting the poison being spread by Mr. Modi at the national level. “Hatred, poison, and anger. I'm using a strong word, but there is no other word I can use,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi claimed that no country in the world had been strengthened by divisions. No country had become successful or built itself because of divisiveness. “Mr. Modi divides India, he divides the people, he makes different religions fight with each other, he makes different communities fight with each other,” the Congress president alleged.
He promised that he would be the voice of Wayanad in the Lok Sabha. “I will make it sure that the name of Wayanad is heard not only in India, but across the world. I will also raise Kerala’s issues in Parliament,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi said he would fight for people’s issues considering it as “an honour and a privilege.” The roadshow began at Engappuzha, near Thiruvambady, in the morning, with hundreds of people waiting anxiously on either side of the road to have a glimpse of their new MP.
Activists of the Youth Congress and the Kerala Students Union were seen carrying placards that said ‘Rahul, only you can save the nation.’ Members of the Muslim Students Federation and Muslim Youth League too were seen in large numbers, on motorcycles and four-wheelers, greeting Mr. Gandhi even as loudspeakers blared songs in his praise.
Mr. Gandhi gave short speeches at Engappuzha and at Mukkom before leaving for the Calicut airport on his way back to New Delhi.