Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to divide the country, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said. Modi's plan was to create an India for the rich and another for the poor, farmers and labourers, he said, informally kicking off the Congress-led front's campaign for the general election.
Gandhi accused the prime minister of spending Rs 3.5 lakh crore for his coterie of 15 businessmen while refusing to spend even Re 1 for the poor. Modi also tried to weaken the land acquisition act in favour of the businessmen, the Congress president said at a party meeting in Kochi.
The Congress has always tried to increase the standard of living for the poor and the party has never gone for temporary gains, Gandhi said, reminding the fight against poverty through the Green Revolution. He said that the country was on track to achieve self-sufficiency in food when Modi came to power.
He said that Modi was helping Ambani by spoiling the chances of hundreds of thousands of job seekers.
Gandhi said that the Congress would make minimum income a right if it was voted to power. He said that would be a continuation of the employment guarantee scheme introduced by the UPA government. He said that the money would be deposited into the accounts of the poor in the country.
He also said that the first priority of a Congress government would be to introduce the women's reservation bill. He promised to amend the anti-farmer policies of the Modi government.
He called upon the party leaders to follow the motto: “My booth, my pride”. He said that the party would make sure that it fielded more youngsters and women as its candidates in the elections.
He reiterated that the Goods and Services Act was an utter failure and promised to overhaul what he called the “Gabbar Singh Tax”.
He also took a snipe at the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala, saying that the people in power were only interested in protecting their favourites. He suggested that the August flood in Kerala was man-made. He said that the Malayalis across the globe stood shoulder to shoulder in the hope that the Kerala government would take the lead to reconstruct the state but both the state and the centre did little to reconstruct the state.
Gandhi said that the CPM and the BJP were trying to divide the people. Both parties had no agenda to protect the youngsters and women in the state. The Congress wanted the state to stand united.
He said that he wanted to raise the same questions to the BJP at the centre and the CPM in the state.
He said that India could overtake China if the governments at the centre and the states worked together. He said that he could see a scenario in which the Chinese used products made in India.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress was the only party capable of uniting India at a time when division was creeping into all institutions in the country. He said that the Congress defeated the BJP in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He said that Kerala would also go the same way.
He said that the Congress was the heart of the country even if the BJP and the CPM could boast of their cadres. He said that the others submitted to the British while the Congress fought for independence.
The Congress president said that the party was strong enough to defeat the BJP at the centre and the CPM in Kerala. The Congress wanted to protect the farmers, he said.
He said that he was amazed by the unity and integrity of Malayalis while on a recent visit to Dubai. Kerala is not just a state, it is an idea and a world view, he added.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the BJP would drew a blank in Kerala. He said that Kerala had always stood by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Congress working committee member A K Antony said that he had never seen such a mammoth meeting since he joined the Congress. He warned Congress leaders against complacency, saying that a backlash against the government was not enough to win an election. He said that the Congress should learn from its defeat in the assembly byelection in Chengannur.
KPCC president Mullappalli Ramachandran, AICC general secretaries Oommen Chandy, Mukul Wasnik and K C Venugopal also spoke.
Earlier, Gandhi visited the family of deceased Congress MP, M I Shanavas.
