Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday cautioned the people of Bihar to be wary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “suited-booted friends” who may take away their land in the name of development.
Rahul Gandhi made a controversial statement during his rally while mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He commented, “Modi started off as a tea seller, his clothes started getting better. From kurtas, he moved onto 15 lakh suit.”
Addressing a rally in Bihar’s West Champaran, Gandhi also said “the uprooted landless people would find no shelter in big cities as they would be treated as outsiders and would be driven away from there too”.
Referring to Bihari migrants being attacked as outsiders, Rahul Gandhi said, “If the BJP government comes to power here, people will come here in suit-boot and demand your land. Then you go to other states you would be asked to go back as you don’t speak their language, you would be beaten up.”
The Congress vice-president said that if the BJP wins, the “suited-booted” friends of the prime minister from New Delhi and Gujarat would come to grab the land of the people of Bihar.
Rahul said, “Congress wants to save Bihar and its people from suited-booted sarkar.”
Assailing the prime minister for not providing employment as he had promised that two crore people will be provided employment every year, Gandhi asked the people assembled at the rally to raise their hands if any one of them had got a job promised by Modi.
Interacting with people in West Champaran pic.twitter.com/sMJOQs9hTG
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 19, 2015
Gandhi remarked, “The government only made false promises — no change in unemployment, inflation, and poverty.”
To buttress his claim that the Modi government had failed to generate employment, Gandhi said that during the Lok Sabha campaign Modi had promised to revive sugar mills in Champaran but so far nothing had been done in this direction.
Comparing the suited-booted culture of the Modi dispensation with the simple living of Mahatma Gandhi, he said, “Gandhi ji gave up the comforts of his life to serve the people.”
कांग्रेस पार्टी की पहली लड़ाई गांधी जी ने यहाँ चंपारण से शुरू की थी #BiharWithRG
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 19, 2015
Rahul said while Congressmen want to mix with people, Modi and his friends are averse to the common man.
Gandhi said the prime minister has distanced himself from the poor people and “they (government) want to keep their suit clean, we want to embrace ‘dhoti'”.
“If you want to bring in rozgar (employment), talk to the people who need it, not to those in suits,” Gandhi said.
“We will create jobs in Bihar; we will give a credit of Rs.4 lakh to the Bihar youth for education. If our government is formed here, we will create employment opportunities in Bihar,” Gandhi said asking people to vote for his party in the upcoming elections.
Election in Bihar will be held in five phases, between October 12 and November 5, to elect the 243-member assembly. Counting of votes will take place on November 8.
(Inputs from IANS)