Gondia: Leader of the opposition in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, yet again flaunted the pocket-sized ‘red book’ symbolizing Constitution and said he was sure prime minister Narendra Modi never read it. “Had he read this book, he would never steal MLAs, overthrow governments, deprive famers MSP or spread hatred and let few individuals rule the country,” said Gandhi at Gondia on Tuesday.
Addressing a large crowd gathered in the home district of Maharashtra Congress president and Maha Vikas Aghadi leader, Nana Patole, Gandhi said Modi, the BJP and the RSS constantly attacked and Indian Constitution by their actions. “This book never talks of hatred but Modi does. This book talks of equality, but the BJP and Modi government waive Rs 16 lakh crore loans of few top industrialists and not a penny of the distressed farmer,” said Gandhi.
Accusing the Modi government of destroying institutions empowered by the Constitution, he said all universities were vitiated by appointment of RSS men as vice-chancellors who do not believe in wisdom of Ambedkar, Buddha and our saints that can be found in the Constitution.
“Adani does not pay any GST, it is you people who pay the tax on each and every of your daily purchases from seeds, fertilisers to clothes. Yet it is Ambani and Adani who get benefit of all government resources,” alleged Gandhi. He said the SC and ST communities who together constitute 23 per cent of population in the country, get a merely Rs 6.10 form every Rs 100 spend in the union budget.
“ There are hardly any SC, ST and OBC among the 90 officers who formulate the country’s budget,” he said , adding that the reason for this lopsided allocation was — no one knows the exact numbers of OBC in the country. He said whenever the Congress government comes to power the first thing he would do will be getting the cast census done and removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations. “Today 90% of the people find no place in judiciary, private hospitals, corporate boards . But we will change all this and empower these deprived masses and see that they get the respect and countries resources they are entitled to,” said Gandhi implying that the caste census was the remedy to all ills that the country is suffering.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi who was scheduled to address his first election rally at Chikhli in western Vidarbha’s Buldhana district, had to cancel it as he could not reach there. In a message on X, he said he was unable to reach Chikhli because of a technical problem in the aero plane he was travelling forced him to return to Delhi without the scheduled landing at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. As a result he missed the rally to campaign for Congress candidates Rahul Bondre and Dilip Sananda and an opportunity to interact with cotton and soyabean farmers who are distressed since they are not getting the remunerative price for the crop.
