Summary
Says Modi will milk India's cows for other countries if voted to power.
Claiming that the 'Gujarat Model' propagated by BJP's prime ministerial candidate and the state's Chief Minister Narendra Modi was benefiting only one business group — the Adanis, at the cost of farmers and small businessmen, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said in Amreli and Botad that this was either a 'Modi Model' or even an 'Adani Model'. He also scoffed at BJP's claims of women empowerment, citing the case of his government snooping on the woman architect.
Addressing an election rally in Amreli, Rahul said the RSS's "poisonous" ideology was engrained in the BJP's PM candidate, something that Sardar Patel had warned as being potent enough to destroy the country.
Reiterating his earlier statement that Gujarat thrived on a "toffee model" under Modi, Rahul said, "They gave away 45,000 acres of land to Adani for Re 1 per sqm, they awarded Adani power contracts worth Rs 26,000 crore at a meager amount of Rs 10,000 crore and also gave away land belonging to poor farmers and labourers. This is the Gujarat model," Rahul said, also alleging that the BJP was setting up huge billboards with money given by Adanis.
Gandhi went on to allege that education has become a business in Gujarat that only the children of the rich can afford. "We spent Rs 30,000 for NREGA across the country. But Modi handed over gifts, worth Rs 40,000 crore, to only one businessman in Gujarat. This means, he gave away more money to one businessman (Adani) than our total spending on NREGA for the entire country… Gujarat government's budget for education and health is Rs 10,000 crore. But he gave away four times that amount to one businessman," he said, adding on a sarcastic tone, "Gujarat is shining…".
Gandhi alleged that the Gujarat government was taking away farmers' land "in two minutes", while the the UPA amended the 100-year-old land acquisition act to stop just that.
While maintaining that Congress was the party that worked for the poor, he toed Congress president Sonia Gandhi's line when he described the 2014 elections as a "fight between two ideologies", in Botad, and said, "…And on the other side there is the BJP ideology .an ideology of anger…an ideology that makes people fight against each other…an ideology that forms a government of 2-3 businessmen."
According to Rahul, it was because of Modi favouring Adani that a few other businessmen that senior BJP leaders like L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha had been sidelined.
Also taking a dig at Modi over the alleged snooping on a woman by Gujarat police, Rahul said, "There are posters in Delhi telling he would empower women. But women in India are already powerful. All they need is some respect. But what do they here? Gujarat police taps phone calls of a woman.
They ask police continued…
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