PATNA: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday claimed that her party was now fighting the same battle against the “Modi empire” that Mahatma Gandhi once fought against the British imperialists.
Addressing back-to-back events in Bihar’s Kadwa (Katihar), Purnia and Barari in the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, Vadra hit out at Modi for using words like ‘katta’ (country-made pistol) that she said were unbecoming of a Prime Minister. She also noted how, on one hand, the PM was hailing ‘Vande Mataram’, which stood for non-violence, and on the other, he was using words that hurt the dignity of his office and position.
The Congress general secretary held the NDA government in Bihar responsible for the sorry state of affairs in the state. “The lack of opportunities in Bihar has forced its youth to seek jobs in other parts of the country,” she said. She also blamed demonetisation and the faulty implementation of GST for the collapse of small- and medium-scale businesses, which destroyed employment opportunities.
Vadra also slammed the NDA government for allegedly handing over all public sector undertakings to PM Modi’s “two corporate friends”.
“The NDA leaders keep talking about the seven decades of Congress rule in India. They should know that the Congress governments of the past built institutes like IITs, IIMs and AIIMS,” she stressed.
Referring to the pre-election cash handout of Rs 10,000 to women in Bihar by the NDA government, the Congress leader said the BJP was trying to bribe them. “The NDA thinks they will bribe women with Rs 10,000 and get votes,” she said.
“While loans of corporate houses are being waived off, poor people are spending their lifetimes repaying interest on the credits they took for educating their children or getting their children married,” Vadra lamented.
The senior Congress leader further said that since people of the country were fed up with the BJP and its allies, the party has started resorting to electoral malpractices to stay in power. She specifically referred to the deletion of 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls in Bihar prior to the ongoing Assembly elections. She also lashed out at CEC Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi & SS Sandhu for being complicit in the “vote theft”. Vadra warned that the citizens would hold them accountable for undermining democracy. She then equated the Mahagathbandhan’s fight against the NDA with the Indians’ struggle against the British colonial rule.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari claimed that the ruling NDA faced heavy losses in the first phase of the Assembly elections, asserting that the Opposition alliance was poised to gain 75 to 80 seats. Tiwari also insisted that most BJP candidates were headed for a loss.