Launching the Congress campaign for the Bihar assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday made a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he looked after the interest of only a few "suited-booted" people and reminded him that Mahatma Gandhi had shed his "suit-boot" for the sake of the poor.
"A suit-boot barrister Mahatama Gandhi shed it for the sake of the poor, but Narendra Modi, who claims to be a tea-seller, went for Rs 15 lakh suit after becoming prime minister," Rahul Gandhi told a rally in Ramnagar in Bihar's West Champaran district to mark the 125th Birth Anniversary of dalit icon B R Ambedkar.
The occasion served as the launch pad for the poll campaign by the grand secular alliance of Congress, Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Bihar elections. The rally is the first major show by the alliance after the announcement of the five-phase Bihar Assembly poll.
Before this, the secular alliance had organised a "swabhiman rally" at Patna on August 30 in which Sonia Gandhi had shared dias with Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.
Though Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD President Lalu Prasad gave a miss to the function, K C Tyagi and Tejaswi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad, represented the two parties in the function organised by the Congress.
Earlier, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had met Rahul Gandhi at the PatnaAirport before he came to Ramnagar by a helicopter.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Congress general secretary C P Joshi and Haryana Congress leader Ajay Yadav, who is also a relative of the RJD President, were present in the programme, which was aimed at giving a message of unity among secular alliance partners for the crucial Bihar poll.
Mahatama Gandhi had launched his satyagrah for the cause of farmers from Bitharwa, 12 km from Ramnagar, in 1917 against the British rule.
The Congress vice-president made several references to "elitist culture" promoted by the Prime Minister in support of his "suit-boot ki sarkar" barb.
Taking a swipe at the PM over his talk of employment generation and Swachh Bharat (clean India drive), Gandhi said Modi chose to discuss these issues with a group of "suit boot wearing friends."
"If you are honest towards the cause, go to safai karamchari and unemployed youths instead of making tall claims about employment generation and cleanliness in the company of elitist suit-boot wearing friends," he said.
Asking people not to be lured by "false promises" made by Modi like he did in the last general elections, he alleged, "After winning the election, his suit-boot wearing friends from Delhi and Gujarat would come to Bihar for land of farmers under the new Land Bill and they would be obliged by the NDA government."
Taking potshots at the PM, Gandhi said, "Britishers wanted to take farmers' land against which the Father of the Nation launched an agitation and in the same way the Modi government is also interested in snatching farmers' land through the new Land Acquisition Legislation.
The Gandhi scion also touched upon the PM's defence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje in the Lalit Modi controversy. He also mentioned Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh and questioned the PM's silence over it.
"While Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhra Raje's families profited from Lalit Modi, PM gives the slogan of 'na khaunga na khane doonga' (I will neither engage in corruption nor allow anyone to indulge in it)," the Congress leader said in a bid to puncture Modi's claim of fighting graft.
He also referred to the Rajasthan government's doing away with the practice of providing free medicine in hospitals in Rajasthan begun during the Congress rule and PDS scam in Chhattisgarh to slam Modi's claim of "wiping out corruption."
Gandhi also accused Modi of reneging on his poll promises of giving Rs 15 lakh each to citizens from black money which would be brought back to the country and also creation of two crore jobs for youths every year.
He said Modi had promised to revive the sugar mill in Champaran, "but, has it come about even after 15 months of his becoming PM?"
Unlike the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance coalition, the grand secular alliance of Congress, JD-U and RJD was not of "suit boot walo ki sarkar" and cared for poor, Gandhi said and highlighted that none of the persons attending the rally was wearing "suit-boot."
In a bid to connect with the youths, he said the future government of grand secular alliance in Bihar would facilitate Rs 4 lakh bank credit to students.
Earlier, Ghulam Nabi Azad slammed the PM on his Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package for Bihar, saying, "He had made announcement of a similar kind of package for Jammu & Kashmir for the victims of flood, but nothing has come so far."
JD-U general secretary K C Tyagi said the "insensitivity" of the NDA government towards farmers was reflected in the remarks made by Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh.
The minister, who is also Lok Sabha member from Motihari, had kicked up a controversy by stating that farmers' suicide was related not to any financial crisis, but to love affairs and impotency.
Tejaswi Yadav, younger son of RJD president Lalu Prasad, also attacked the NDA government for not providing jobs to youths and going back on his promise of unearthing black money.
With inputs from ANI
Image: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi started the campaign for the Bihar polls in West Champaran. Photograph: @ANI/Twitter
