Holding unemployment, price rise, and divisiveness as the key issues governing the Parliamentary election in India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre of keeping the Manipur issue burning to distract the country’s attention from real issues.
The violence in Manipur, which has been burning for almost a year now, would have ended had the Prime Minister called in the Indian Army. But it is in the interest of his government to keep the anger in society,’’ he said, addressing an election event by the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kottayam on Thursday.
He also sought to rebuff the NDA government’s claim of India becoming a superpower, pointing out that about 70 crores of its citizens are earning less than ₹100 per head a day. “How can we talk about being a superpower when our farmers are protesting and our youngsters are scrambling for employment,’’ he asked.
Accusing the Narendra Modi government of putting 200 million people back into poverty over the last ten years, he said the proposal by the INDIA bloc to compensate women for their household chores would serve as a model to other countries as well. Terming the Agniveer scheme as an insult to the country’s youth, he also promised to scrap the scheme if elected to power.
CPI(M)-BJP nexus
He also sought to highlight the alleged nexus between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala by asking why the BJP, which attacks everyone opposed to its ideology, is sparing the Kerala Chief Minister. And while the BJP remains his primary opponent, the Chief Minister was spending 24 hours attacking him.
“Keep in mind that those who attack the BJP get attacked in return, and for some reason, the BJP is not attacking Mr. Vijayan,’’ he said.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, Kerala Congress chairman P.J. Joseph, and other UDF leaders spoke on the occasion.
