Modi has belittled this Bengaluru and the efforts of Kannadigas who built it: Rahul
Bengaluru: Congress president Rahul Gandhi rounded up his poll campaign in Bengaluru on Wednesday by launching a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarking that he had defamed the IT capital, Bengaluru, by describing it as 'Paapi Nagara' and 'Garbage City.'
Karnataka, Bengaluru in particular, fetches thousands of crores in revenue for the Central government but the fund the BJP-led NDA government gives for the city’s development is a mere Rs 550 crores, said Gandhi, who went around parts of Shivajinagar. During the final leg of his campaign, he lamented that PM Modi, instead of granting Rs 10,000 crores to the IT City, had demeaned Nadaprabhu Kempegowda’s Bengaluru.
Addressing crowds during his campaign, the Congress president said, "It is you and your ancestors who built Bengaluru. Even before Mr Modi came to power, Bengaluru was known as the IT capital. This city is built by people of all categories and by criticizing the city, Modi has belittled the hard work and efforts of Kannadigas."
Continuing his criticism of the PM, Mr Gandhi remarked that he was roaming around the country boasting about Startup India when the programme was a complete failure in all cities. But thanks to the state government's plan for startups, Bengaluru has grown into the startup hub and has gone on to become a 'dynamic' city of the world. He also took a swipe at the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign of the NDA government saying times have changed so much that “we should save the girl child from BJP legislators” in what seemed to be an oblique reference to the Kathua rape incident involving a minor girl.
“If a child is raped in UP, the state's CM himself protects the guilty and the PM never opens his mouth or utters a word about this,” Mr Rahul said adding that when people were dying standing in queues before ATMs, Modi's ‘friends’ like absconding businessmen Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi were looting thousands of crores before fleeing the nation.
The Congress president also slammed the BJP’s choice of CM candidate saying that Mr Modi was giving speeches against corruption but had declared Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa who has been to jail, the CM nominee. The BJP has also given eight Assembly poll tickets to the Reddy brothers of Ballari and their associates who has looted Rs 55,000 crores of public money, he said.
Aadhaar, job creation, bring us to power, we will fix them all: Rahul Gandhi
"...they get all money. small and middle-sized factories do not," Gandhi said in an interaction with women garment industry employees. "Nirav Modi has not given jobs to anybody. He pocketed Rs 35,000 crore and ran from the country.
This could have been given to small and middle-sized factories. Your factory could havecreated a 1000 jobs," Gandhi said. He said mining baron Reddy brothers also stole Rs 35,000 crore which could have created even more.
Gandhi said small garment factories have shifted to Bangladesh, unable to cope with losing their subsidy. GST and note ban were behind shutting down garment factories.
He said jobs are the biggest problem in India and the Congress manifesto promises a crore jobs in five years if it comes back to power. Small and mid-sized factories can create jobs and should be supported, he said. Gandhi said laws made by BJP and NDA reduced the competitiveness against China and Bangladesh, “It is necessary to make the lives of people easy to defeat them.”
On Aadhaar, Gandhi said Congress had brought Aadhaar cards ease life but NDA sees a mechanism for control and monitoring. He said Congress will reduce Aadhaar-related problems by changing laws when they return. "The Congress is against the present Aadhaar because it is creating problems," he added.
