Rahul Gandhi in Odisha: Congress president reiterates focus on job creation, healthcare system in 2019 Lok Sabha poll pitch

Congress president Rahul Gandhi reiterated the party's narrative for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls at the Odisha townhall on Friday, saying that education and healthcare institutions would be few of the priorities of the Congress if it came to power at the Centre.

"The monopolisation and capture of the healthcare system and the idea that a middle-class person has to pay lakhs to send their children for education abroad should be challenged," Rahul said.

Attacking the Narendra Modi-led government, Rahul said, "Ours is a dynamic process, we listen to the people. Not like the prime minister who thinks he knows everything, there is no scope for feedback. This is the basic difference between us and BJP." He added that Modi had also "destroyed" the country's institutions over the last four and a half years.

Rahul Gandhi in #Bhubaneswar: Ours is a dynamic process, we listen to the people. Not like Mr.Narendra Modi who thinks he knows everything, there is no scope of feedback. This is the basic difference between us and BJP pic.twitter.com/76lSDcIv7i

— ANI (@ANI) January 25, 2019

The Congress president also slammed the government over the scams carried out by fugitive bankers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. "There is also a complete capture of the banking system. Small businesses are grappling with GST and demonetisation, but are not forgiven their loans. Meanwhile, rich bankers are being given loans worth crores and not being held accountable," Rahul said.

Addressing the issue of unemployment, Rahul said that India should be "run" by its 1.2 billion people, and "not by an ideology". He slammed Modi over the 'Make in India' programme, saying that there was a lack of production in the country.

Rahul also drew attention to job creation in China. He said, "We have to compete with China. We have to accept that the single biggest challenge is China's ability to produce jobs after jobs." He added, "No one is talking about jobs in India, and that is the problem."

Rahul said, "We need a new paradigm, but the current government is trying to make the old paradigm work. The central problems are: How do we deal with agriculture, how do we deal with the job crises, and how do we align healthcare and education system to provide protection to citizens."

With inputs from agencies