Akhilesh replacing tyres of damaged cycle, but it's too late: Rahul Gandhi
Allahabad: With Akhilesh Yadav at war with his uncle Shivpal Yadav, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday took a dig at him, saying the Chief Minister was trying to change the image of his government by "replacing tyres of his damaged cycle" but it was too late.
Making speeches during his yatra in Allahabad with an eye on next year's Assembly polls, Gandhi said Akhilesh cannot accomplish much in the remaining few months.
"Akhilesh Yadav is trying to change the image of his government. He is trying to replace tyres of his damaged cycle," the Congress leader said, in an apparent reference to the SP's election symbol cycle and removal of tainted ministers from cabinet by Akhilesh.
Read: Akhilesh Yadav camp attacks 'outsider' Amar Singh, Shivpal backs him
"But he should realize it is too late. Four-and-a-half years have been wasted," he added.
Akhilesh recently removed the state's Chief Secretary, who was considered close to his uncle Shivpal Yadav, on charges of corruption, leading to chain of unpleasant developments in the ruling family clan.
Contending that Akhilesh government had performed badly, he said, "here one does not need to worry while touching a damaged electricity cable since no current flows through these."
The Congress leader also targeted the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of having "betrayed" people on the promises made during elections and providing benefits to big businessmen while ignoring the needs of farmers and jobless youths.
Gandhi said the Modi government has waived loans to the tune of Rs 1.1 lakh crore of big business houses.
"When we were in power, the Manmohan Singh government had waived Rs 74,000 crore for debt-ridden farmers. This reflects our prirorities as well as those of the ruling BJP," he said.
"The current regime appears unconcerned about the problem of unemployment. It must be noted that the annual budgetary outlay by this government for the employment generation scheme is about Rs 35,000 crore, which is just a quarter of the amount that businesspersons have been exempted from paying towards loans," the Congress leader said.
Raising his recently coined slogan, he said, "janta trast, Modi mast" (the people are in distress while Modi is making merry).
Taking on ruling Samajwadi Party chief, Gandhi wondered "why Mulayam Singh Yadav maintains a studied silence whenever the opposition parties launch an attack against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre".
He said Congress, along with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), Lalu's RJD and Mulayam had at one point of time decided to jointly fight communal forces represented by the BJP.
"But just ahead of the crucial Bihar assembly polls held last year, the SP walked out of the alliance, apparently in a bid to benefit the BJP," he said, adding "Though both parties may keep pretending to be locked in an ideological fight.”
