MUMBAI/RANCHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Ek hai toh safe hai’ slogan, claiming that the slogan is for protection of his industrialist friends. He claimed a link between the slogan and the Dharavi redevelopment project being given to the Adani Group.
At his news conference in Mumbai, Gandhi pulled out two posters from a metal safe, one featuring a picture of industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Modi with the caption ‘Ek hai toh Safe hai’, and another showing a map of the Dharavi project. He sought to draw a parallel between the word ‘safe’ in the slogan and the tendering process in the project, suggesting it was designed to protect Adani’s interests.
“The slogan primarily serves to help Adani acquire Rs 1 lakh crore worth land through the Dharavi project. They (MahaYuti) want to come back to the government in Maharashtra to protect Adani and give him projects,” Rahul alleged. “Modi is taking away big projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat while Adani is getting all major projects in Mumbai and Maharashtra. People have to choose between two people — one is working for common men and farmers while other is backed by industrialists and will work for them after the polls,” he said.
Gandhi said, “This election is a fight between two ideologies — one is protecting the Constitution and wants to run a government of the poor, the other wants to end Ambedkar ji’s Constitution. Maharashtra’s DNA is Congress. Its progressive and secular mind should not be hurt in this election.”
Gandhi again mocked the slogan at another news conference in Ranchi by claiming that it translated into the “unity” between Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and billionaires like Ambani. “I will explain the real meaning of BJP’s slogan. It is if Modi, Shah and Ambani are ‘ek’ (united), then they are ‘safe’,” he said.