Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: Rahul Gandhi blames Narendra Modi's 'healthcare policies' for deaths

Bengaluru: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “dividing” the country by allowing the BJP cadres to “beat up Dalits and kill minorities”. [caption id=“attachment_3814793” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Reuters[/caption] “Prime minister Modi has been busy dividing the country. He allows his party people to beat up Dalits, kill minorities and does not condemn it”, Gandhi said, addressing a gathering of party workers at a public meeting in Bengaluru. He attacked the prime minister for not mentioning the Gorakhpur deaths, rising unemployment and the Doklam standoff in his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort. “The Prime Minister did not tell you that the rate of unemployment is the highest in eight years. He had promised two crore jobs yearly. What is the Prime Minister doing about giving jobs to youngsters?” Gandhi questioned. “He did not tell you that many babies died in Gorakhpur due to his health policies”, he said, adding that medical facilities aren’t available for the poor in India. He accused the Modi government of “cutting” the health budget, which he said, was why the hospital could not buy oxygen cylinders. “Did anyone hear the Prime Minister say that the Chinese forces are sitting inside Bhutan?”. On Jammu and Kashmir, Gandhi lamented that the Modi government had “destroyed in just one month” all the work done by the previous Congress-led government over 10 years to bring peace to the region. “We wanted to embrace Jammu and Kashmir and for them to embrace us. We wanted peace in the region, because with peace Pakistan cannot do anything to Jammu and Kashmir”, Gandhi said. On foreign relations, he said the Modi government was responsible for “creating problems with friendly nations”. “When we (Congress) were in power all neighbouring countries barring Pakistan and China were favourable to India, but the Prime Minister has alienated them one by one”. “For the first time in history, Russia is selling arms to Pakistan. Over the last three years, the Modi government has created problems with friendly nations”, Gandhi added. “It is time that the Prime Minister starts doing what he has been elected to do”, he remarked. Earlier during the day, the Congress leader inaugurated the party-led state government’s ‘Indira Canteens’ aimed at providing subsidised meals to the poor in the city.