Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused him of weakening institutions like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and said “achhe din” (good days) will come when Congress comes back to power at the Centre in 2019.
Speaking at the Jan Vedna convention of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were undermining the constitutional institutions like Reserve Bank of India, judiciary and the Election Commission.
Calling institutions the soul and spirit of India, he charged that “people who talk of Hindu dharma are the ones who are destroying the very soul of this country.” “Demonetisation is just an excuse. PM Modi knows that he won’t be able to hide in the garb of Yoga and Make in India. When he got worried, he broke the backbone of the Indian economy (through demonetisation),” said Gandhi. “Almost every economist of repute has rebuked demonetisation.”
Gandhi said the move to ban Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes was PM Narendra Modi’s “personal decision”. He described demonetisation as the “worst decision” of India’s history.
Mr. Gandhi’s mother and party president Sonia Gandhi is not attending the daylong event at the Talkatora sports stadium in Delhi, amid reports that she is unwell.
“PM Modi must ask why has the demand for MGNREGA suddenly surged and why are people migrating to villages instead of cities,” he said.
“Dhaie saal pehle Modi ji aaye kaha Hindustan ko saaf kardunga, sabko jhaadu pakdaya. Fashion tha, 3-4 din chala phir bhool gaye (Two-and-a-half years ago, Modi government had said they will clean India. They gave brooms to everyone. It used to be fashionable. It continued for some time, then they forgot about it),” said the Congress leader in reference to the government’s flagship Swacch Bharat Abhiyan.
“RBI that is the financial bedrock of the country has been ridiculed. The governor of RBI has been ridiculed…only because the RSS and the BJP think no one’s opinion matters other than their own.”
Gandhi also hit out at Modi’s allegations that the Congress had ruined the country in 70 years, saying party workers had spilled their own blood in states such as Punjab and Assam.
“How many BJP workers have spilled their blood? We don’t need to explain what we did.”
