Bikaner/Chittorgarh (Rajasthan): Taking a dig at BJP over its media campaign ahead of elections, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today said that the opposition camp was good at "marketing", but came nowhere near to his party's achievements when it came to development.
On a day spent addressing public gatherings in Rajasthan ahead of the December 1 Assembly elections in the state, Rahul told a gathering here that, "BJP people are good at speeches ... (they) give very good speeches on TV. The BJP people will show (the speeches) from every angle ... from top, from behind, from below. They are number one in marketing," he said, while asserting that Congrees, on the other hand, believed in development.
"If you see our record in Rajasthan (where Congress is in power with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at the helm) and at the Centre as part of UPA government, then there is no comparison (between Congress and BJP).
"BJP says during the NDA regime many roads were built... they keep harping on it. We (UPA) constructed three times more roads (than NDA)," Rahul claimed.
"We made the Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad airports. We don't know how many airports we constructed in Rajasthan... We constructed the Indira Gandhi canal. "So, we are no less when it comes to creating infrastructure," Rahul said.
Picking up where he left off in the afternoon at a public meeting in Chittorgarh, Rahul further attacked the BJP with the allegation that it was dividing the masses on the grounds of caste and religion.
"We say every person has to grow irrespective of his caste, religion and wealth. "(But) the opposition says India has to be divided... between Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor," he charged.
Rahul charged that the opposition BJP did not understand poverty. "When I interact with (BJP) MPs in Parliament, I ask them why they oppose MGNREGA, 'why are you against Food Security Act'. Their response is, 'when you give free food, when you give employment, people grow lazy'. They say this because they do not understand poverty. They think poverty is due to poor people. We understand this deeply that poor people are not behind poverty. It is because there is a wall in front of them that needs to be broken," he said.
Making a jibe at BJP, he added, "Big marketing people say that this wall of poverty has to be brought down by poor people ramming their heads against it. We say that it is the government's job is to break down the wall. That is why we gave the MGNREGA and Right to Food Acts," he added.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress National Secretary CP Joshi, the party's in-charge for Rajasthan, Gurudas Kamat, too, attended the rally.
Rahul also spoke about Congress being committed to growth in Rajasthan, referring to the refinery project in Barmer and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Railway Freight Corridor.
Earlier, addressing another rally in Chittorgarh, Rahul Gandhi accused BJP of favouring the interests of businessmen and industrialists over those of the common man, saying the opposition believed in running the government for a select few.
"There is a fundamental difference between us (Congress and BJP). We say this country belongs to everybody; the poor, rich, businessmen, industrialists, workers... Their focus is on some select few. They will run government for some big people, industrialists," he said at a rally.
If you hear what BJP leaders say, you would hear them talk about airports, infrastructure, roads but not people not the poor, the Congress leader said. "We say we must build roads, airports, rail lines... But we must help our poor people also so that they too could travel in an airplane one day... That's why we have empowered you, given you rights," the Congress Vice-President said.
Anybody, irrespective of how weak he is, has a stake in the country and Congress believes in taking him along while developing it, he said. Rahul presented his party as the only formation which was sincere about the lot of the poor and said it has given people the RTI Act so that they could ask the government any question.
Keeping up his attack on main opposition BJP, Rahul invoked the "strength of the poor" against the rival party's alleged tactic of trying to win the elections by dividing the people.
He told the gathering that the opposition wanted to capture power not through democratic means but by driving a wedge between people.
"They (BJP) do not know the strength of the poor," Rahul told the crowd of around 20,000 people at Indira Gandhi Stadium here as he appealed to them to vote for Congress when Rajasthan goes to polls on December 1.
The opposition party "does not think of the bright future of the nation but of present self gains and believes in capturing power by means of violence", Rahul said.
"(But) Congress builds the infrastructure as well as the lives of the common man," he claimed, and assured that, "if Congress wins, you will see the common man in power".
He praised the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan for focusing on development and improving lives through various welfare schemes. And, lashing out at BJP for allegedly casting aspersions on one of the state government's flagship schemes to distribute free medicine, Rahul said "it is the poor mentality of the party in opposition to label generic medicines as poison".
Rahul, meanwhile, presented a vision of industrial development for Rajasthan and referred to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project which he said would bring about unprecedented growth in Chittorgarh and surrounding areas.
He also claimed that the present UPA government at the Centre had built more roads during its tenure than had the NDA coalition when it had been in power.
