Taking aim directly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, 27 February, while campaigning in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi, accused the PM of being “scared” of China and working for the interests of the privileged few in the country.
Speaking to lawyers at a college in Thoothukudi, Gandhi said, “Question isn't whether PM is useful or useless. The question is who is he useful to? PM Modi is extremely useful to two people ie, 'hum do, humare do', who are using him to increase their wealth, and useless to the poor.”
Launching his three-day tour of Tamil Nadu ahead of Assembly elections on 6 April, Gandhi added in his address that PM Modi allowed Chinese forces to “test the idea” in Doklam in 2017 and that his first reaction to the Chinese incursions was that “nobody has come into India.”
“They know that the Prime Minister of India cannot stand up to them. Mark my words, our land in Depsang, which is the most important land, is not going to come back under this government. The prime minister will not get that land back. He will pretend everything is sorted out, but India is going to lose that territory.”Rahul Gandhi, Senior Congress Leader
Gandhi added that the government under Congress “always dealt with the Chinese without any hesitation.”
"The Chinese understood very well that India cannot be pushed around. Even in 2013, when the Chinese entered into India, we took action that forced them to compromise... we went and occupied other spaces," he said.
BJP Used Money, Muscle to Poach Puducherry MLAs: Rahul Gandhi
Gandhi also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of poaching Puducherry MLAs through "money and muscle power".
Responding to a question on the fall of the Congress government in Puducherry, while speaking at VOC College in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi, he said Congress was given the mandate in Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh, and he is also aware of how much money was "thrown" by the BJP government to buy MLAs, in order to overthrow the elected government.
“On one side, you have a capture of institutions, monopoly of money and media and on the other side, other parties are not allowed to form the government even if they have been given the mandate.”Rahul Gandhi, Congress President
Gandhi is on a three-day tour of Tamil Nadu where Assembly elections are scheduled to be held on 6 April.
On 1 March, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy submitted his resignation to Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, after his government fell in the Union territory. President’s Rule has been imposed in Puducherry since 25 February.
“Choosing the right MLA candidate is one component of the problem. If you look at Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Arunachal Pradesh, people gave the mandate to Congress. But concentration of capital took that away from us,” he said.
“When you have one party fighting elections with thousands of crores while other parties are not allowed to raise money and even seek help from people who want to support them. There are many who want to support us opposition parties but if they do so, their businesses will be destroyed,” he added.
China Knows PM Will Compromise Country’s Interests: Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi spoke about how democracy in India “is dead” and there has been a systematic attack on elected institutions and the free press over the past six years.
He said China knows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will compromise the country's interests.
“Democracy doesn’t die with a bang, it dies slowly. Institutions like Parliament, judiciary, press, etc hold the nation together. A nation is a balance between its institutions. If that balance is destroyed, then the nation is destroyed. RSS has penetrated into them.”Rahul Gandhi, Congress President
RSS Destroying Balance of Power: Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi targeted RSS for destroying the power balance between institutions and state governments.
He compared today’s political scenario to India’s struggle for Independence and said, “We need a judiciary that isn’t penetrated by the RSS.”
“We have seen cases of judges giving verdicts in favour of governments. There should be a cooling-off period (after justices’ retirement),” he added.
Transparency in EVMs Needed: Gandhi
Speaking at the college, he said he offers his complete support for reservation of women in the judiciary and Parliament.
“In every space, Indian men need to view the Indian women with the same lens they view themselves,” said Gandhi.
He also pointed out that there has to be transparency during the voting process as well to ensure a smooth election. “Whenever the Congress has said show us EVMs, let us do random checks on machines, we are told you can’t do. I would be comfortable with EVMs if I could see it was open to checking, transparent, accessible to political parties,” he said.
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