The Narendra Modi government would never have withdrawn the three farm laws if there were no Assembly elections, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Friday while addressing a virtual rally on the last day of campaigning for the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections.
While addressing the virtual rally, Ms. Gandhi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in U.P. claims credit for distributing free ration to families but such dole make people nirbhar on the government rather than atma nirbhar or self-reliant.
“There is no harm if you get ration but the problem lies in creating circumstances where you wait for the sack of ration or wait for the modest amount that they give through direct benefit transfer. This kind of politics has to stop,” Ms. Gandhi said, adding, “There is a reason why they do this sort of politics. They don’t you to be atma nirbhar but nirbhar (dependant) on these doles.” “Your child’s future doesn’t depend on the bag of free ration. If you become a tma nirbhar, then you would question those in power and seek accountability,” she added.
The Congress leader opened her speech by sharing that it was her 25th wedding anniversary. She sought blessings from the people.
Ms. Gandhi said that while the Congress was talking about issues like employment, empowerment, women’s security, education, health, and containing inflation, its rivals like the BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) indulged in politics of caste and communalism.
Ms. Gandhi said farmers faced multiple issues like high power bills, shortage of fertilizers, inadequate price for crops, and stray animals ruining farms, but the BJP-led government not only failed to address them, it worked only to fulfill the interests of its “corporate friends”.
“Had the farmers not protested for one year and if elections were not scheduled at the end of that protest, I can say this with surety that there would have been no change. Modi- ji would not have come in front of all of you with fake tears and apologised for those laws if there had been no elections,” she alleged.
“The BJP’s politics is only for its big corporate friends. Their policies, politics and media are all working for their friends,” Ms. Gandhi alleged during the ‘Congress Pratigya Virtual Maharally’.
Referring to the PM’s recent speech in the Lok Sabha, where he had claimed that several poor families had now become “ lakhpatis”, Ms. Gandhi claimed that “ lakhpatis” had been pushed into poverty because of the government’s policies.
