Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of ‘insulting’ the hard work put in by farmers, labourers and small businesses by repeatedly asserting that the country saw no progress in the 70 years after independence.

The Congress chief, who began the third leg of his ‘Janaashirvad Yatra’ in poll-bound Karnataka from the coastal district of Udupi, was speaking at a public meeting at Padubidri.

The development of the country has not happened in the last two years. The hard work of the people in the last 70 years has helped the country reach this level, he said.

Highlighting the extent of NPAs (non-performing assets) in the country’s banking system, Rahul said 10-15 rich people had taken loans to the tune of ₹8-lakh crore. Of this, the BJP government had waived loans of ₹2.5-lakh crore, but it is not ready to write off the loans of poor farmers. The Congress government in Karnataka, on the other hand, had waived loans of ₹8,000 crore, he claimed.

Recalling the contributions of social reformers Basavanna and Sri Narayana Guru, he said they had believed that all people were one.

Basavanna believed in the principle of ‘follow what you promise’ ( nudidante nade in Kannada). The Congress chief said Modi had given three promises to the people during his election campaign. One of them was that ₹15 lakh would be deposited in the bank accounts of the country’s citizens. Not even ₹15 has reached them, he said.

The Prime Minister’s second promise was to provide jobs to 2 crore youth every year. Citing statements made in Parliament, Rahul said unemployment figures in the country are the highest in the last eight years. Not even 1 lakh youth have got jobs till now, he said.

Modi had also promised good price for farm produce. But now when farmers want the government to increase the support price, the Prime Minister does not speak, he said.

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