Mamata, Modi making false job promises, alleges Rahul Gandhi

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of “resorting to falsehood and bluffing the people”, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said they had promised lakhs of jobs but “not a single person got employment”.

“Mamata ji and Modi ji are making false promises. Mamata ji talked of providing jobs to 70 lakh people, while Modi ji had said two crore jobs will be given by his government. But not a single person has got employment,” Gandhi said.

Sharing a platform with Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders at an election meeting, he said Bengal which was once industrious has turned into a “graveyard” in Trinamool Congress’s rule and also attacked the Mamata government over corruption issue.

He said no action was taken against those involved in Saradha and Narada scam.

Referring to the recent flyover collapse in Kolkata which claimed several lives, Gandhi alleged that the TMC government had given contract of supplying material to its partyman who had supplied substandard materials.

He charged Mamata and Modi with “telling lies about action against corruption and unemployment”.

He said Modi had promised to bring back black money and fight corruption but nothing has been done.

“His government has brought laws to turn black money into white which I call ‘Fair and Lovely scheme’,” Gandhi said.

“Earlier there were lots of industries in Bengal. But now in TMC rule, Bengal has turned into a graveyard. Only the industry of syndicate is flourishing in Bengal,” he said.

Seeking support for the Congress-Left alliance in the assembly polls in West Bengal, he said if the alliance government was formed, its first task would be to provide employment, stop syndicate and corruption and take action against those involved in Saradha and Narada scam.

“Vote for Congress-CPI-M, vote for the Congress-Left alliance and defeat Mamata government to usher in development,” Gandhi said.

CPI-M central committee member Dipak Dasgupta was present with Gandhi at the meeting.

“Mamata Banerjee had given a call for change. But after five years there has been no change. Earlier, there was jute industry where lakhs of people used to work. There were brick kilns in Howrah. But now everything is gone. Earlier, Bengal was known as Sheffield of the East. But now it is known as graveyard of East,” Gandhi said.

“The job of a government is to provide employment, health services and education. She could not provide these things, rather she took away the money from the poor in the Saradha scam,” he alleged.

Calling Modi “a friend of Mamata Banerjee”, the Congress vice president accused the chief minister of “dictatorial” rule in West Bengal.

“In Bengal Mamata Banerjee is running a dictatorship and her friend in Delhi, Modiji, is spreading lies,” he said and added that people should not forget that Mamata Banerjee had forged alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier.

Image: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at an election campaign rally in West Bengal. Photograph: Swapan Mahapatra/PTI