Rahul takes dig at government over Mallya issue

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit back at the rival parties that took dig at his 'khaat chaupal' in Deoria a day earlier and raked up the Vijay Mallya case to get even with the government.

"Agar hamare kisan bhai khaat le kar chale gaye to chor; Vijay Mallya jaise log hazaro karod le kar desh se bhaag gaye to vo defaulter (if farmers take away cots they are called thieves but if people like Vijay Mallya run away from the country with thousands of crores they are defaulters)," the Congress leader told a gathering at the Sugar Mill grounds in Khaleelabad.

He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of working for the industrialists and not fulfilling any promises made to the people in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Taking a dig at Modi's foreign trips, the Congress leader said Modi was enjoying life whereas the people in the country were facing difficulties.

Gandhi also demanded a loan waiver for farmers as was done by the previous United Progressive Alliance government led by the Congress.

The Modi government will not do so since it is busy pleasing its industrialist friends and offering them sops, the Congress leader said.

Gandhi said the Modi government had waived off loans of industrialists running into billions of rupees.

The Gorakhpur rally was part of his ongoing 'Kisan Mahayatra' kickstarted from Deoria on Tuesday.

It will conclude in Delhi after covering 223 of the 403 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in the day, he visited the Gorakhpur medical college and met patients suffering from Japanese Encephalitis.

In a brief interaction with the media, he charged the NDA government at the Centre of giving no funds for eastern UP to tackle Japanese Encephalitis.

--IANS

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