Johnson Cherian.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Union government of spreading falsehood in the name of development.
Campaigning on the last day of his three-day Navsarjan Yatra in south Gujarat, Mr. Gandhi asserted that despite the hype and falsehood of the BJP, the Congress would win the Assembly polls in the Prime Minister’s home State.
Mr. Gandhi said, “The Congress party has truth in its side and therefore, will win the polls.”
“This is a fight between truth and falsehood. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the police, the Army as well as the government in Gujarat, Centre, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa and many other States. However, despite all this, the Congress is going to win the Gujarat elections because we have truth on our side,” Mr. Gandhi said, addressing a public rally.
He said unemployment was high, farmers were helpless, education was expensive and medical costs were soaring because the government had not set up new hospitals, corruption was very high and a handful of industrialists and corporates could take away land, water and other resources while the BJP government in the State remained a mute spectator.
“Their Gujarat Model’s truth is bullets on Patidars, sticks on the back of Dalits in Una, hunger of tribals,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Land Acquisition Act
Mr. Gandhi also met Gujarat’s Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and said his demands for theb etterment of the Dalit community in the State would be included in the Congress’s election manifesto.
In Valsad, he interacted with farmers and assured them that if voted to power, the Congress would restore the earlier Land Acquisition Act, as the amended Act brought out by the State administration was anti-farmer and benefited only industrialists and State entities.
Farmers, many of whom had lost their lands or had received notices of acquisition by the State government, met Mr. Gandhi at Valsad. Most of them said their lands were being acquired without consent for projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), the Vapi-Vadodara expressway, and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train.
Mr. Gandhi said the Land Acquisition Act passed by the UPA government was meant to empower farmers and land holders. “If the village panchayat opposes, no one can take even an acre of land from you.
Addressing tribal people in Pardi, he said Mr. Modi had given loan for the Tata Nano project, but the cars were nowhere to be seen.
