Modi trying to turn nation into ‘chowkidars’ after being ‘caught’ in Rafale deal: Rahul

Kalaburagi (Karnataka),March 18

Mocking the prime minister’s ‘chowkidar’ campaign, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Narendra Modi was attempting to convert the whole country into chowkidars after being “caught”  in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Attacking Modi’s “Main bhi chowkidar’ (I too am watchman) blitz, he said, “Chowkidar was caught indulging in theft and as he was caught, chowkidar says the whole of Hindustan is chowkidar. But before getting caught, the entire Hindustan was not chowkidar.”

Gandhi stepped up the attack a day after BJP intensified its “Main bhi chowkidar” campaign with Modi and other party leaders, including its president Amit Shah prefixing the word chowkidar to their names in their Twitter profile.

Modi’s Twitter account profile identified him as “Chowkidar Narendra Modi” as did other BJP leaders in a coordinated campaign against Gandhi’s sustained “Chowkidar Chor Hai” jibe at the prime minister over the Rafale deal.

“Before getting caught only Narendra Modi was chowkidar. Thief has been caught (chor pakdagaya). The whole country knows that “Chowkidar chor hai”,” Gandhi said at a public rally here in the constituency of Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, in north Karnataka.

He told the crowd, “You had said Chowkidar chor hai. But yesterday and day-before-yesterday Narendra Modi was attempting to turn whole country into chowkidars.”    

Gandhi said, “when he became prime minister, he said don’t make me prime minister, make me chowkidar, do you remember? He had never said make whole of Hindustan into chowkidaars.”     

The Congress president said Modi had asked the people to make him the prime minister and he would become their chowkidar.    

“Whose chowkidari has he done? Did he do chowkidari of Anil Amabani or not? Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya — he did their chowkidari,” he said.

Gandhi said on the day the Pulwama attack occurred when 40 CRPF men were killed in a suicide bomber attack in Jammu and Kashmir, the same day “Chowkidar had given Adani six airports of Hindustan.”     

Stating that “Rafale is an aircraft of Hindustan’s Air Force,” he said it was the “biggest” defence deal in the world.

“There is no bigger defence deal than this in the world. It is of about thousands of crores of Rupees.”     

Gandhi claimed that the UPA government had clearly said Hindustan Aeronautics Limited would get the contract and that the Rafale aircraft would be manufactured in Bengaluru, Odisha and in different parts of the country.

The then Defence Minister A K Antony had clearly said each aircraft would cost Rs 526 crore, “but Modi, who only took Anil Ambani along with him to France, changed the whole contract”, he alleged.

 “Rs 526 crore aircraft, Chowkidar ji brought it for Rs 1,600 crore,” Gandhi claimed.

He told the youth of Karnataka that Modi “took away” jobs from them.

 “HAL had to manufacture the aircraft, youth of Karnataka had to get jobs, but Narendra Modi said, no. Chowkidar will give it to Anil Ambani.”     

Ambani’s company, which had done nothing, was given the world’s “biggest” defence contract by Modi and Ambani got “direct benefit of Rs 30,000 crore”, he alleged.

Gandhi said the prime minister had also made false promises where ever he went, like putting Rs 15 lakh into each citizen’s bank account and providing jobs to two crore youth.

The Congress president charged the prime minister and RSS with attempting to scrap the Constitution.

“It is Narendra Modi’s wish that just as he scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes through demonetisation, he wants to scrap the Constitution,” Gandhi charged.

Gandhi said the Congress would never let Modi and RSS succeed in their mission.

Elaborating, Gandhi alleged that the note ban was effected without asking the RBI.

He also alleged that the Supreme Court was not allowed to function while the Election Commission was being pressurised.

The Congress president accused Modi of spreading hatred between different faiths. — PTI