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Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the Lok Sabha election has become an election to save democracy, reservation, Constitution, and the rights of the poor.
Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre over alleged privatisation and crony capitalism, he further claimed that the Centre had given ₹16 lakh crore to 22 billionaires, “an amount equal to 25 years of MNREGA wages” and the money needed to waive the loans of farmers for “24 years” . He also announced that the party would lift the 50% cap on reservations if voted to power.
“Look, earlier [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi said char sau paar [cross 400 seats]. Is he now saying char sau paar? Now he isn’t talking about crossing 150. Statements are coming that we are not against the Constitution, we are not against reservation, we are not against democracy. Why? Because they have come to know that the people of the country have understood the real thing... the people of the country have caught the pulse that these people want to uproot the Constitution and the rights of the poor,” he said at a rally in Bilaspur in support of the Congress candidate Devendra Yadav.
‘Abki Baar Char Sau paar’or ‘crossing 400 plus this time’ is the BJP slogan for the Lok Sabha election.
Holding a copy of the Constitution, Mr. Gandhi said that Dalits, tribals, backward people, poor general caste voters, and minorities in India, were going to “protect this Constitution”. “No one can cancel it, no one can end it, no power has arisen in the world. Leave it in India, leave Narendra Modi, there is no power in the world that can cancel it and tear it to pieces,” he asserted.
Earlier in his speech, Mr. Gandhi had alleged that the BJP wanted the Constitution – that empowered and protected the poor – to be torn up and thrown away and let “20-25 billionaires rule and the rest of the public keeps watching”.
He further said that reservations meant that the backward people of India, Dalits, and tribals should get participation in the country. “When they implement contractual system, they eliminate reservation. When they bring a scheme like Agniveer, they eliminate reservation. “Dalits, tribals and backward classes used to get a place in the public sector. As soon as the public sector is privatized, neither Dalits, nor backward classes, nor tribals get a place in the private sector,” he said.
The former Congress president further said that while the BJP government made 20-22 billionaires, his party if voted to power would make crores of millionaires, underlining the Congress manifesto promises such as cash assistance for women and an apprenticeship scheme for the youth. He said women, who worked more than the men because their responsibilities included domestic chores and childcare responsibilities, would receive ₹8,500 every month if the Congress was voted in.
“The whole country knows that in the 21st century both men and women work. But women work twice as much as men. The woman is the future of India; she takes care of your children, cooks food for you. She works at home for 8 hours and gets not even ₹1 for it. But the Congress party has brought a scheme - the Mahalakshmi Nyay Yojana. The name of one woman from every poor family of India will be selected, and the Congress party will put ₹8,500 into their accounts on the first day of each month. This is a revolutionary scheme to benefit crores of women every year,” Mr. Gandhi said.
