Aggressively resuming his election campaign, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the Narendra Modi government will soon waive ₹6 lakh crore owed by 10-15 corporate houses, even while scaling down subsidies for the poor.

At a time when distressed farmers are demanding loan waivers, the NDA government has already waived ₹1.20 lakh crore of big industrialists and is now going to waive another ₹6 lakh crore, he added.

Rahul, who arrived in Porbandar on a two-day visit, said Modi had provided financial benefits worth ₹33,000 crore to the Tata Group for its Nano small car project, but withdrawn subsidy worth ₹300 crore for fishermen in the State provided by the earlier UPA government.

“During the last 22 years of BJP rule, only 10-15 big industrialists had access to the corridors of power. And they marketed Modi. The State government took away your land for their benefits. They polluted the environment and the coast, forcing you to sail into the deeper sea to catch fish,” he told the fishing community there. Gujarat at present has 50 lakh jobless youths, said Rahul. “He also gave away all the ports in Gujarat to a friend of his,” he added without naming anyone.

Hindu tilt

The AK Antony Committee, formed by the AICC to go into the party’s 2014 Lok Sabha election debacle, was reported to have recommended a revision in the party’s alleged “pro-Muslim” policy. Rahul’s apparent “pro-Hindu” tilt in Gujarat is seen in that backdrop. Although the party fielded four Muslim candidates in the first phase, he has visited only Hindu places of worship so far.

Based on the Gujarat results, the party is likely to recalibrate its strategy for eight Assembly elections in 2018 and the Lok Sabha election in 2019, sources said.

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