BENGALURU: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today flayed Narendra Modi for "running" the country from the Prime Minister's Office and with the help of bureaucrats, besides not giving a chance to party MPs from being heard.
"The thinking of Modi is different. Modi thinks that the country can be run from Prime Minister's Office and with the help of bureaucrats. I want to make a very pertinent point that the country cannot be run from the Prime Minister's Office and with the help of bureaucrats," he told the party's Gram Panchayat members here.
Drawing a parallel between Congress and BJP, Gandhi said his party has always worked for strengthening of citizens of the country, corporators, MLAs and MPs, but Modi does quitethe opposite.
"Their (BJP) MPs do not speak in the Lok Sabha, and we hear these MPs complaining that they are not being heard, but the Congress has always worked for strengthening the citizens of the country, coporators, MLAs and MPs. That is the difference between them and us," he said.
The Congress works for the weak and the poor, but the BJP works for select few corporates, said Gandhi, who is on a two- day visit to Karnataka to meet the farmers hit by distress.
He criticised the Modi government for not fulfilling the promises he made, including on black money.
"BJP government made many promises including bringing back black money. I ask which are the promises they have fulfilled in a year. What has he done for Karnataka," he asked.
Targeting Modi further, Gandhi said the Prime Minister has neglected Karnataka farmers in spite of placing their rightful demands. "The Modi government does not consider Karnataka farmers as Indian farmers. The Karnataka government is asking for help which is their right, but the central government has not given," he said.
Modi announced a package for the farmers in Bihar, but had not uttered a single word for the farmers of the state, said Gandhi, who earlier in the day visited two families of farmers who committed suicide in the sugarcane belt of Mandya district.
Gandhi, who is visiting Haveri district in north Karnataka tomorrow to undertake a padayatra and address a rally, alleged that the BJP is giving a step-motherly treatment to the weak and the farmers living in states ruled by non-BJP governments across the country.
On the land bill, he said the BJP government wanted to snatch land from farmers, but the Congress stalled the bill in Parliament after a sustained fight.
"They (BJP government) want to snatch the land from farmers. They do not have anything but their land and this suit-boot government wants to snatch it from them, but we stopped them after they introduced it in Parliament thrice before," he said.