Bhabanipatna/Rourkela: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stepped up his attack on Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, accusing him of being remote controlled by the Narendra Modi government and favouring big industrialists at the expense of the poor in the state.
Addressing rallies in Bhabanipatna and Rourkela, Rahul reiterated the party’s commitment of minimum income guarantee for every poor family across the country including Odisha if voted to power in the coming elections and minimum selling price of Rs 2600 to farmers.
Lashing out at both Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik in equal measure, he quipped “Chowkidaar (Modi) chor hai Naveen Patnaik remote control hai”. He alleged that Naveen acts according to the directions of the Modi. If the GST or any other legislation needs to be passed in Parliament, Modi will press the button in Delhi and Naveen will get them passed.
The voters should put an end to this by taking the remote control directly in their hands. “Take the remote control in your hands and vote for Congress,” Rahul said. “While Naveen Patnaik gave you corruption and chit fund scam, Modi gave Rafale scam and looted money from you in the name of demonetization,” he alleged.
This was Rahul’s second visit to Odisha in two weeks to infuse life into the moribund Odisha Congress and revive its fortunes ahead of the polls to the state and Lok Sabha. While the Bhubaneswar rally saw the Congress president launching a blistering attack at Naveen Patnaik, he upped the ante against the CM on Wednesday at the Bhabanipatna and Rourkela rallies.
He reiterated the party’s promise of waiving off farm loan if voted to power. “People tell me that my stand of waiving off farm loan was insensible. But I want to tell them was it sensible for Narendra Modi to waive off loans of industrialists to the tune of Rs 3.5 lakh core”.
Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel accompanied Rahul at the Bhabanipatna rally.
Rahul who had earlier campaigned at Niyamgiri for the tribals rights, said Congress was well aware of the people’s bonding with the nature in the region and will restore their rights. He said during the last 18 years the Odisha government has snatched away their rights and given away land, water and forest to the industrial houses. “Tata factory was to be built in Chhatisgarh, it couldn’t b built in five years, so Congress government gave back the land to tribals,” he said.
Raking up the 2016 Dana Majhi incident, the tribal who carried his wife’s body on his shoulder back to his village, Rahul wondered what kind of administration Naveen was providing as he could not even arrange an ambulance for the poor family. “Has he ever apologised over the incident. He had never spoken about it because he is least bothered about the plight of the tribals,” Rahul alleged.
He took a dig at the Centre over its recent budget announcement of depositing Rs 6000 every year into the bank account of the poor, saying it comes to a mere Rs 17 per family per day. This pales in comparison to the Rs 3.5 lakh crore which the Modi government has reportedly waived off as loans of big industrialists, he claimed.
“We will roll out the minimum income guarantee for the poor and no force on earth can stop us from doing that,” he said. Gandhi, however remained silent about the quantum of the minimum income. Earlier, at a rally in Patna, he had said the income guarantee would be Rs 10,000 per month. He also said they will ensure a MSP of Rs 2600 to the farmers, Rs 100 more than what the Chattisgarh government has announced for farmers there.
“Go to Chatisgarh and ask farmers how much they get paid for selling paddy. It is Rs 2500. How much Naveen Patnaik gives you. Once our govt comes to power in Odisha we would give Rs 2600 within two hours,” he said.
At his Rourkela rally, Rahul reminded the voters about the contribution of the Congress-led government for city beginning with the establishment of the Rourkela Steel Plant and then the NIT among others.
At the rally, the Congress president launched the ‘guarantee card’ for every farmer, youth and women in India.
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