Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is on a three day Yuva Rojgar Khedut Adhikaar Navsarjan Yatra campaigning for the party ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat.
During his trip, Rahul addressed quite a few gatherings and held interactions with the traders and students. Throughout his addresses, he attacked the Modi government pulling it down on the issues of failure on the implementation of GST, failure in the experiment of demonetisation and failure in keeping up the promise of creating jobs.
He also took a jibe at the BJP government, saying that the Gujarat model that Modi had set up was also nothing but a failure.
Reacting to the comments made by the Congress leader during his speeches, Union Minister Smriti Irani accused Rahul Gandhi of insulting the people of Gujarat and hurting their feelings. She also claimed that Congress will suffer a historic defeat in the upcoming assembly elections due in Dec this year.
Criticising the remarks of Rahul, she said that remarks made by Rahul confirm that he is not only anti-development but also do not approve of a developed and empowered India. Irani further added that Rahul and his party believe in vote bank politics rather than Vikas (development).
“The manner in which Rahul Gandhi has made fun of the dreams and aspirations of the people of Gujarat will lead to a historic defeat for the Congress party in the state election,” Smriti Irani said in a statement to the press.
She alleged that Rahul is insulting the dreams and aspirations of 6.5 crore Gujaratis not welcoming the development and making fun of it. She also added that instead of wasting his time hurting the feelings of the people of Gujarat and making fun od the development, he should rather focus on his constituency Amethi as it needs more development. “People of Amethi are asking for ‘Vikas’ even as their MP goes around the nation mocking ‘Vikas’,” she said.
The Union minister for textiles and information and broadcasting also alleged that the Congress and especially the Nehru-Gandhi family has been anti-Gujarat. She further added that even when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, the Congres was always a hindrance to the development of the state. She alleged that the UPA government had obstructed raising of the height of Narmada Dam, denying its benefits to lakhs of farmers.
Further attacking Rahul, she said that “the rule of the Congress was a ‘sultanate of corruption’ and now the opposition party is concocting stories to defame the people of Gujarat before the election.” She added that the people of Gujarat are very well aware of the Congress party and hence will give a befitting answer to this slander and keep this sultanate of corruption as far from them as possible.
The former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Anandiben Patel also reacted to the comments made by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi during his addresses against the ideology of BJP and RSS.
Rahul sarcastically responding to a query on discrimination against women in Gujarat had said that “How many women are there in the RSS… Have you ever seen any woman in shakhas wearing shorts.” Responding angrily to this remark, Anandiben demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi. In a statement to the press, Anandiben said that “Ask Sonia Gandhi or Priyanka if they liked his (Rahul) comments on women.”