VISAKHAPATNAM: Former Union minister and Congress Working Committee (CWC) special invitee Chinta Mohan on Wednesday said Congress MP Rahul Gandhi would visit Andhra Pradesh soon. Rahul Gandhi will visit Visakhapatnam to extend solidarity to the ongoing steel plant agitation. He will also visit Guntur.
Speaking to the media, Chinta Mohan said the Congress was totally against privatisation of the steel plant. “The Narendra Modi government was going towards total capitalism against the socialist principles laid down in the Constitution,’’ he said.
He said after coming to power, the Congress will surely bring the steel plant under the public sector if it is privatised by the present government. “The principles and policies brought by former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi are still relevant. There is no need to privatise the steel plant as it is earning profits and in a position to pay salaries to the employees,’’ he pointed out and added the state government lacks commitment to fight for the steel plant.
The former union minister described the three-capital proposal of the YSRC government as a hasty decision and opined that it should have been taken after convening an all-party meeting. “The Congress will come to power both at the Centre and the State and Rahul Gandhi will be the next prime minister,” he predicted. He said there was a leadership vacuum for the Congress in the State and they were looking for a leader who has a clean track-record and is acceptable to all to head the State Congress.
Chinta Mohan said the future of 80 lakh students belonging to SC, ST, OBC and minorities is at stake as the YSRC government has not paid scholarships, mess bills, pocket money and fees reimbursement for the last two years. When colleges and schools reopen after Dasara, the students will face hardship due to the non-payment of scholarship. It was Indira Gandhi who introduced fees reimbursement in 1975, he said and added he was creating awareness among people to demand release of scholarships immediately.