Why are so many people poor despite Indira's 'garibi hatao' slogan? Goyal asks Rahul

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi why there were so many poor people in the country even decades after former prime minister Indira Gandhi coined the slogan of 'garibi hatao' (eradicate poverty).

"Fifty years after his (Rahul's) grandmother giving the slogan of 'garibi hatao', why are there still so many poor people in the country? Rahul Gandhi should answer that first," Goyal told reporters here.

The Union minister blamed the Congress and the Gandhi family for the poverty in the country.

Goyal's comments come after Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed the promise of minimum guaranteed income to the poor a "surgical strike on poverty".

Goyal asked what about the future of the food security scheme if the minimum income scheme was implemented.

"Rahul gandhi wants to snatch away that food for the people. Is he going to stop scholarship of the children?" he asked.

"You look at the comments by his leaders. Kapil Sibal Jairam Ramesh all are saying they will stop all the subsidies," Goyal claimed.

He asked whether the Congress would stop all the subsidies for the SC, ST and OBC families.

"I think he is making a fool of the people of India," Goyal added.