In Banaskantha, Rahul Gandhi says Narendra Modi has govt machinery and money, Congress only truth on its side

Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “obsession” with the Congress party, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi claimed that the prime minister has been avoiding key issues since BJP’s “vikaas yatra” has been a flop. Speaking at a rally in North Gujarat’s Banaskantha on Monday, The Indian Express quoted Rahul as saying,“The Gujarat elections are going on and Modi speaks sometimes on Japan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s the Gujarat elections, speak on Gujarat.” [caption id=“attachment_4253037” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday. Twitter @INCIndia[/caption] Rahul said that Modi is nervous about losing Gujarat and hence his speeches have been focusing partly on himself and partly on the Congress. “Tell me one speech where he has spoken about vikaas in Gujarat,” he quipped. Targetting Modi over his “Gujarat model”, Rahul said that the economic model only helped a few big industrialists and not the common man. “Modi took away land from the farmers and gave it to the Tatas for setting up the Nano factory. He promised jobs to everyone. But we see that no one got the job as well as the car,” Rahul said. In true filmy style, Rahul said, " Modi has the government machinery, army, intelligence units, state governments, money from industrialists. Only Modi can be seen on TV. We do not have money but we have truth on our side." Upping the ante against the prime minister, Rahul claimed that Modi helped 10 of the country’s biggest industrialists receive waivers worth Rs 1,30,000 crore, but ignored the plight of farmers. “Modi says that it is not his policy to waive off farmer loans. But I do not understand what crime has a farmer committed?” Rahul remarked. Rahul reiterated his promise of farm loan waiver in Gujarat and vowed that waivers will be implemented within 10 days if Congress was voted to power in the state. “During the UPA era, you used to get correct prices for your crops. But not nowadays. We will ensure that you get correct prices for your produce,” Rahul told the gathering. Lamenting the alleged privatisation of education and medical services in Gujarat, the Congress vice-president claimed that people need to pay a hefty amount to admit their children to prestigious medical and engineering colleges. “Modi invested Rs 33,000 crore in Tata Nano but did not invest in the education sector. There are no doctors in government hospitals. if someone is ill then they need to give Rs 15 lakh or just die,” Rahul said. Calling Modi’s anti-corruption crusade a sham, Rahul claimed that the prime minister has stopped talking about corruption in his campaign trail. “He said that he will fight against corruption. But he snatched the money away from poor,” Rahul said on demonetisation, and continued,“Did you see any person wearing costly suits in the queue? They were all converting their black money into white.” Rahul reminded Modi of his promise of crediting Rs 15 lakh in every account and added that even 15 paise has not been deposited in any account so far. Targetting Modi over Goods and Services Tax (GST), Rahul once again called it “Gabbar Singh Tax” and said: “Due to Gabbar Singh Tax, a shopkeeper now gets only Rs 50 out of 100. Half of his earned money is gone for GST.” Slamming Modi over his silence on the alleged financial irregularities in Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah’s company, Rahul claimed that the prime minister is frightened of the BJP president. “A company converts Rs 50,000 into Rs 80 crore in just few years but desh ka chowkidar is silent over it as Shah has the remote control of Gujarat,” Rahul claimed. Click here for detailed coverage of Gujarat Assembly Election 2017