DHARAMPUR (Gujarat): Congress general secretary Priyanaka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, targeting him over inflation and dubbing him as “mehangai man.” “BJP leaders and candidates are saying that they will change the Constitution. But PM Narendra Modi is denying it. This is their tactic,” she said at a public rally at Dharampur village of tribal-dominated Valsad district held in support of Congress candidate for ST-reserved Valsad Lok Sabha seat, Anant Patel. “BJP leaders project the prime minister as powerful and say that ‘chutki bajake ladai rukva dete hai (he can stop the war – Russia-Ukraine – with the snap of fingers)’. Then why is he unable to remove poverty just like that,” Gandhi asked.
The Congress leader claimed that the tribal population in Gujarat, which is PM Modi’s home state, and in the country is suffering due to issues like rising inflation, unemployment, low remuneration, loss of land, violence against women and other atrocities. Highlighting the Congress’s manifesto, she said it addresses the issues faced by the tribal population. Their party will bring an MGNREGA-like scheme for urban areas where families will get 100 days of guaranteed work, she said. Gandhi also said that the Congress is committed to filling about 30 lakh vacancies in government jobs, providing subsidised diesel to fishermen, taking minimum wage to Rs 400, working out “sub-plans” for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs), a special budget for tribals and declaring tribal-dominated areas as scheduled areas.
She also responded to PM Modi’s relentless attack on Congress over “wealth redistribution”. “He is now warning people that Congress will enter their houses with an X-ray machine to conduct a search, then snatch your ornaments as well as ‘mangalsutra’ kept in safes and give it away to others. Is that even possible? Is he doing this out of nervousness,” she asked. The Congress also slammed as “false propaganda” PM Modi’s ‘snatching quotas’ remarks and alleged that it was the BJP that was against reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the reality is that since 1950, reservation in education and employment has been possible when there have been Congress prime ministers and Congress governments at the helm.