BENGALURU: After the opposition parties’ meeting, this is the second big event Congress has organised in a month. Sensing a political opportunity nationally, the party is holding a massive national Youth Congress convention in Bengaluru spread over three days, starting Wednesday. Indian Youth Congress national president BV Srinivas said, “Yes, we have sensed an opportunity and we are holding this meeting that will serve to strengthen our party.’’
Sources said AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge will participate on Friday, signifying the importance of the event. What will be BJP’s counter to this massive meeting — Foundation of Good India — remains to be seen, considering that national BJP Yuva Morcha president Tejasvi Surya is also from Bengaluru.
At the Youth Congress rally, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “After Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, women, Dalits, Shudras, minorities and tribals have been deprived of their rights, while politics of hate has engulfed the country. We have to recreate an India of love. At a time when unemployment is on the rise, the poor and middle classes are suffering because of a steep rise in the prices of essential commodities. Attempts are being made to weaken the foundations of humanity, secularism, scientific progress and development laid since Nehru’s time. India’s secular fabric which has let people of all denominations live in harmony for hundreds and thousands of years has been systematically damaged and destroyed by the workers of BJP-RSS parivar after Modi became PM.
He said, “BJP has never been worried about real concerns of the downtrodden and marginalised, like farmers and labourers. The party is trying to drag the country into the middle ages by pushing children of underprivileged groups into the cauldron of hatred through provocative speeches and actions. I am confident that the youth and students of this country will not allow this to happen. Congress is committed to the spirit of the Constitution and has been waging a war to uplift the lives of workers, women, Dalits, Shudras, backward classes and poor of all castes.”
He said, “After Modi became PM, he ruined the country’s economy. In just nine years, Modi increased the country’s debt to Rs 170 lakh crore. In the last 75 years, the country’s debt was only Rs 53 lakh crore. The rise in prices of fuel when crude oil prices were low is because of Modi’s bad economics.’’