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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on April 26 took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his attack on the grand old party, saying he is scared and may even shed tears on the stage.
“You have heard the Prime Minister’s speeches. He is scared. It’s possible that he may shed tears on stage,” Mr. Gandhi said addressing a public gathering in Karnataka.
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Mr. Modi has targeted the Congress on a variety of issues in recent campaign rallies, including "mangalsutra", "redistribution of wealth" and "inheritance tax" charges.
The former Congress chief accused Mr. Modi of 'diverting public attention' through various means.
“Modi tries to divert your attention. Sometimes he talks about China and Pakistan, and sometimes he will make you beat plates and ask you to switch on the torch light of your mobile phones,” Mr. Gandhi said.
He pointed out that there are three to four core issues in India including poverty, unemployment and price rise.
Mr. Gandhi claimed that only Congress can eradicate unemployment, contain price rise and give people their due share.
“Modi has only snatched money from poor people. He has made some billionaires. There are 22 people who have wealth equivalent to the 70 crore people of the country. Just one per cent people are controlling 40% of the wealth of the nation,” he alleged.
Mr. Gandhi said in the present scheme of things, there is "no scope" for Dalits, OBCs, tribals, minorities and poor general category people.
“I will just tell you a clear thing in a simple one line. The wealth Modi has given to those billionaires, the same money we are going to give to the poor people of the country,” he added.
The Congress leader also promised the youth that his party will scrap the ‘Agniveer’ scheme if it is voted to power.
He dubbed the ‘Agniveer’ scheme in the armed forces offering three years services to the youth from 18 years to 21 years as an insult to the Army and soldiers.
“Narendra Modi snatched the Army jobs from the youth of India. He brought the Agniveer scheme, which is an insult to the Indian Army and soldiers. We will scrap it,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Mr. Gandhi charged Mr. Modi with imposing a faulty GST where he introduced five different types of tax, which are hefty.
Alleging that the prime minsiter was doing injustice to Karnataka, he said the Congress will change the GST and rectify the injustice meted out to the people of the state.
According to Mr. Gandhi, the ongoing Lok Sabha election was not general in nature. “It is not an election that used to happen earlier because for the first time in the history of India, a party and a person want to destroy the Constitution and democracy."
