‘Achche din only when Congress returns’

Back from his New Year holiday, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday was in his elements, poking fun at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-publicised slogans and declaring that achche din will come when the people return the Congress to power in 2019.

At the Congress’ Jan Vedana Diwas, organised by the party to protest against the “anti-people” policies of the Centre, Rahul said the PM and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had undermined the country’s independent institutions, especially the RBI, the Election Commission and the judiciary, while the media was being “stifled”. “We respected RBI’s independence. It is the financial bedrock of India and now it is being ridiculed. People in RSS and BJP are under the impression that nobody else’s opinion matters but theirs,” he said here.

“They ask us what the Congress has done in 70 years. I’ll tell you what the Congress has not done is to snuff out the soul of democratic India by undermining institutions such as the RBI,” Gandhi said, adding that the PM was being ridiculed the world over for his policy of demonetisation.

He said for the first time India’s Prime Minister is being “ridiculed world over” for taking an “ill-conceived” decision like demonetisation. He said over-riding the autonomy of the RBI, demonetisation was a “personal” decision of the PM.

Alleging that economy had gone back 16 years under the BJP regime, the Congress leader pointed to the sharp drop in automobile sales. He said the PM must ask himself why the automobile sector, which is the fulcrum of economic growth, shrinking. He said the PM needs to ask himself why a reverse migration – from the cities to the villages – is happening.

“Why, indeed, has the demand for jobs in MNREGA, which he (Modi) ridiculed in Parliament, suddenly surged and why people are migrating towards the villages instead of coming to the cities? Modiji came to power promising jobs to our youngsters and now the rate of unemployment is the highest in seven years,” said Gandhi.

Heaping scorn at the different slogans raised by the PM in the last two-and-a-half years – Swachch Bharat, Make in India, Skill India, Start-up India – the Congress leader said people have by now realised that these are hollow promises.

“Two-and-a-half years ago, Modi ji promised us that India will be cleaned up. It became a fashion in those days for the BJP people to wield brooms. Modi ji himself wielded a broom albeit in the wrong direction. And then he forgot all about it. He then shifted to Make in India, Skill India and so on. Then there was a yoga show at India Gate. I too have done some yoga though I am not an expert. What I do know that unless you can sit in the Padmasana , you can’t really do yoga well. Modi ji did yoga but did not sit in the Padmasana ,” said Gandhi.

Implying that the media is working under the BJP’s political pressure, Gandhi said: “I meet my friends in the media. They tell me they are not able to speak and write openly. They did that when Manmohan Singh ji was PM and Chidambaram ji was Finance Minister,” said Gandhi, eliciting a smile from the former PM who was sitting in the audience. “But nowadays, a phone call comes. I understand their problem. They fear for their jobs. But the media has a responsibility. Just like we have a responsibility. We cannot allow the soul of India to be crushed. The Congress will fight if Modi ji and Mohan Bhagwat run the country like a fiefdom and crush the autonomy of important democratic institutions.”

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