Patan : Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi today alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to finish the reservations by changing the constitution. He pointed out, the BJP leaders were openly saying that once they form the government they will be changing the constitution.
Addressing a public rally in Gujrat, RG said, these elections were going to decide whether the democracy and constitution were going to survive in India or not. He pointed out, everything the people of this country have got has its foundation in the constitution.
But, he added, the Congress along with the INDIA bloc would protect the constitution and democracy at all costs.
He alleged that Modi wanted to finish the reservation, by schemes like Agnipath and privatisation, as he wanted to give all the benefit to a select few billionaires to whom he was handing over all the national assets and wealth.
Asserting that Prime Minister’s policies were aimed at benefiting only the rich and super rich, he said, the situation in the country right now was such that 22 people owned as much wealth as 70 crore Indians. Besides, he added, just one percent of the population was controlling forty percent of the country’s wealth.
He said, unemployment and rising prices were the main issues and still these were not being discussed and debated anywhere as Modi had completely taken control of the media.
Referring to the discrimination with people on the basis of their caste, Gandhi pointed out, how the President of India, Ms Droupadi Murmu, who is the head of the state was not allowed to attend the Ram Mandir and the new parliament building inaugurations as she belonged to an Adivasi community. He asked people whether they could see any poor, any dalit, any farmer, any backward or any Adivasi at the Ram Mandir inauguration as there was none.
Gandhi alleged that not only had Modi handed over the country’s wealth and assets to his billionaire friends, he had also waived off their Rs 16 lakh crores loan, which was enough to waive off farmers’ debt for 25 years or run the MGNREGA scheme for 24 years.
He reiterated the Congress’ promise of creating crores of millionaires. He said, while Modi had created a select few super billionaires, the Congress party will create crores of ‘lakhpatis’ (millionaires) by distributing the country’s wealth among them.
He said, first the Congress party’s government will carry out the caste census and financial survey to find out who was controlling how much wealth and resources. He said, this will be the basis for further development and progress in the country.
He announced Rs one lakh every year for one woman of every poor family in the country. He said, every month one woman in every poor family will receive Rs 8500 directly in her bank account.
To address the issue of unemployment, he said, the Congress government has guaranteed ‘pehli naukri pakki’ (first job guaranteed). He said, the Congress government will bring in a law, Right to Apprenticeship. Under this law every fresh graduate and diploma holder will have the right to one year apprenticeship with a guaranteed income of Rs one lakh,
Besides, the Congress government, he added, will waive off the debt of farmers and provide legal guarantee for the MSP of their crops.
The minimum daily wages will be increased to Rs 400 per day. Besides, the wages of Asha and Anganwadi workers will also be doubled.
He also announced scrapping the Agnipath scheme of recruitment in defence services. Besides, he said, the existing GST regime will be modified to make it less complex.
The small and medium scale industries will also have easy access to bank loans and finances.