Rahul terms Modi anti-poor, questions ‘Rs 10 lakh’ suit

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 29

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked the Narendra Modi-led BJP government as anti-poor, questioning the PM's act of sporting a super-expensive suit for a meeting with US President Barack Obama recently.

Addressing his first public rally at the Muslim-dominated Seelampur constituency in the poll-bound Delhi, Rahul also slammed the government’s move to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal saying Modi has secured the US interest through the agreement.

“The Indo-US nuclear deal which has been struck will ensure that our government and not US suppliers pay up in case of any nuclear disaster," Rahul Gandhi said seeking to paint the Modi government as pro-capitalist and anti-poor.

Asking the crowds at a jam packed ground here what happened to Modi's promise of retrieving black money, Rahul said, "You didn't get Rs 15 lakh each as promised by the BJP but Modiji was wearing a Rs 10 lakh suit. He wants only a few industrialists to nurture dreams of the future whereas the Congress will always struggle for the dreams of the poor."

Attacking AAP as a B-team of the BJP, the Gandhi scion asked the gathering to think why all ex-AAP leaders, including Kiran Bedi, had now joined the BJP.

"AAP and BJP leaders ran the Anna Hazare movement which was planned over morning walks at Lodhi Gardens. The movement was a selective conspiracy to target the Congress, not corruption," Rahul said accusing the BJP and AAP of working together to weaken a pro-poor Congress.

"But we are not going to leave the poor. We will continue to fight for their rights," Rahul said raking up the issue of communal flare-ups under BJP's rule.

Recalling pre-poll riots in all election-bound states, including Delhi, which recently saw flare-ups at Trilokpuri and Bawana, Rahul urged people to see through the saffron designs.

The BJP and AAP are conspiring to divide the Congress by dividing the poor, don't let that happen, the Congress leader said, flanked by chief of his party's campaign chief Ajay Makan.

Absent as usual at the event was former three-term Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, whose work in Delhi Rahul touted in his speech at a segment considered safe for the Congress.

Mateen Ahmed, sitting Congress MLA from Seelampur, is in the fray for the fifth time in row. He was one of the eight Congress candidates to win in the last polls. Four of these eight were Muslims.