Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and senior party leaders visited the families of Dalits beaten up by a cow protection group, in Una village of Gujarat , on Thursday.

Hitting out at the BJP-led State government and its “anti-poor” ideologies, Rahul Gandhi said the fight was between two ideologies.

“I met the youth who had attempted suicide here. Why did they need to do it? It is because there is no one to listen to them. The poor and weak are crushed in this State. This is a fight of ideologies. On one side, there is Gandhi ji , Nehru ji , Sardar Patel ji and Ambedkar ji , while on the other, there is RSS, Golwalkar and Modi ji ,” the Gandhi scion said in his brief media address after visiting the Rajkot hospital where the Dalit youth are convalescing.

Gandhi expressed solidarity with the victims and also tried to strike a chord with the families by sharing tea in a saucer with the victims.

Kejriwal in Gujarat today

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal is also slated to meet the victims on Friday, at Mota Samadhiyala village.

Reacting to the incident, NCP leader Praful Patel, who also accompanied Gandhi, criticised the Gujarat government’s slogan of ‘Gatisheel Gujarat’ (Gujarat on fast-track), saying that such incidents happening were shameful and were proof that law and order had completely collapsed in the State.

Gandhi also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of the Gujarat model. “Modiji’s speaks of the Gujarat model. But in this model, those who raise their voice against the powerful, or big corporates, are crushed. We will defeat this ideology not only in Gujarat but also at the national level,” he said.

Meanwhile, barring a few incidents, most parts of the State remained peaceful.

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