Congress senior leader Rahul Gandhi speaking after releasing the party’s national manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections at the ‘Telangana Jana Jatara’ public meeting on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party defeated the ‘B’ team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana in the last Assembly elections and it was ready to defeat the BJP in the Parliament elections.
Releasing the Telugu version of the party’s election manifesto focusing on ‘Paanch Nyay’ at a massive public meeting at Tukkuguda on Saturday evening, Mr. Gandhi took potshots at both the BJP and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and said Congress would defeat the BJP that was bent upon destroying the Constitution, which was country’s soul. He termed the BRS as the ‘B’ team of the BJP.
During his 30-minute speech, Mr. Gandhi touched the State and national issues and brought out similarities between the previous BRS rule here and the BJP’s rule at the Centre. He said the BRS tapped the phones of thousands of people illegally and the BJP was doing it similarly at the national-level.
The BRS government misused the police and intelligence departments to tap phones to snatch people’s right to freedom and safety. The data is thrown into a river to destroy evidence once the government changes. Similarly, the BJP has transformed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into ‘Extortionist Directorate’. The CBI raids a company and a week after that BJP receives electoral bonds, he claimed.
Mr. Gandhi said Prime Minister Modi is seen with the most corrupt people and then the BJP runs a washing machine that cleans all the corrupt as they support BJP. Even the Election Commission is not spared now, he said and termed the electoral bonds biggest scam in the world.
Reeling out the five promises of the Congress party, Mr. Gandhi said after the caste survey the party would take up a financial and institutional survey to determine the share of every section in the country’s wealth. It was time they got their rightful share in the country’s resources.
Terming the Congress manifesto for the Parliament elections as revolutionary, Mr. Gandhi said the manifesto represented the soul of India and it will change people’s lives bringing them on board for the country to leap into a new development orbit.
The Congress leader said the Constitution was the safety net for the poor and the downtrodden and the Congress would never allow the BJP to scrap it. This election is between those saving democracy and the Constitution, and those working for 3 to 4% of people. Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy translated his Hindi speech into Telugu.
