Ahmedabad, Apr 9 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Indian imports.
Addressing the AICC session here, Gandhi asked, "Where is Modi hiding? Who used to boast about his friendship with Donald Trump?"
Moreover, Gandhi also slammed BJP-RSS alleged polarising agenda.
He quoted the recent incident in Rajasthan involving the CLP leader Tika Ram Jully's visit to a temple, which was later washed by one of the BJP leaders, because Jully belongs to the Dalit community.
Gandhi also said that the Waqf Bill passed recently by the BJP government in the Parliament was an attack on the freedom of religion.
“The Waqf Bill is anti-Constitution and against the freedom of religion,” he remarked, while warning that even the Sikhs were in line to be targeted by the BJP.
The Congress leader maintained that it was the battle of ideologies between the BJP-RSS on one side and the Congress on the other side.
He said only the Congress can defeat the BJP-RSS, as the Congress has an ideology, which is enshrined in the Constitution of the country.
He accused the BJP government of attacking the Constitution and the constitutional institutions every day.
Noting that since the BJP cannot do it openly, they were doing it with a hidden agenda.
Gandhi alleged that the RSS did not accept the Constitution and the day it was adopted it held a protest in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, where the RSS activists burnt the copies of the Constitution.
Gandhi reiterated and reaffirmed his party’s commitment to carry out the caste census in the country.
He said the caste census is not merely the counting of people, but it also tells the level and share of their participation in the decision-making process.
The senior Congress leader also reaffirmed that his party will do away with the 50 percent bar on the reservation.
Adding that the Congress government had already done it in Telangana by raising the reservation of OBCs to 42 percent.
Referring to the privatisation of Public Sector Undertakings, Gandhi alleged, these were being handed over to people like Adani and Ambani.
He further alleged that everything like ports, airports, cement industry, defence industry and other things were being handed over to Adani.
Taking a dig at PM Modi’s boastful claims of describing the US President Donald Trump as his friend, he asked what happened to that friendship.
Gandhi warned that there was going to be economic turmoil in view of the tariffs. He apprehended that crores of people may lose jobs while the unemployment was already highest in the last 50 years.
Exhorting the party workers to be battle ready, he indicated change is in the air, as people are fed up with the BJP.
Suggesting that the BJP won the Maharashtra election by manipulation, he observed ask the people of Maharashtra how the BJP won there.
Gandhi pointed the Election Commission of India was still not able to provide the Maharashtra voter list to the Congress.
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