Gujarat not shining, says Rahul Gandhi

Launching a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi on his home turf, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that Gujarat is shining for some 10-15 industrialists. 

 

“India doesn’t need a watchman. Every person in this country should be a watchman to secure its future. The land of the poor has been grabbed to help corporates in the state. Is this what watchmen do? This is robbery,” he said, while a addressing an election rally in Balasinor township of Kheda district, one of the few Congress bastions left in the state that Modi has not been able to wrench away.

Modi has been saying in his rallies that he will work like a 'chowkidar' of the nation's treasury if BJP government came to power. 

He further said that land had been given to industrial houses but the benefit hadn't reached the people who are still grappling with poverty and unemployment.

 

The Congress vice-president said that people should educate themselves before talking about Sardar Patel.

 

"The same people who are making a statue of Sardar Patel were protesting when Ahmedabad airport was being named after Patel ji," he told the gathering.

 

He went on to add that Sardar Patel had said that RSS' ideology was poisonous.

Without directly naming the Gujarat Chief Minister, Gandhi also alluded that Modi works like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and attacked him for retaining "corrupt" ministers in his state cabinet while talking tall of fighting corruption. 

 

"There are two kinds of leaders. The first type belongs to those who go among people, have some ideology and believe in the knowledge of people. He goes to them, asks them and learns from them. The thinking of this kind of leader is that it is the people who are repository of knowledge. Such a leader wants to understand people and has no pride.

 

"Then there is another kind of leader, whose best example is perhaps Hitler. Hitler thought there was no need to go to people. He believed entire knowledge of the world is only in his mind. That kind of leader only talks that he did this and that. That leader does not require to go to people," Gandhi said.

The Congress Vice President had in the past also compared Modi to Hitler.

 

"The leaders from BJP talk about corruption. Three ministers in Gujarat have gone to jail in corruption cases but they were not removed from the state cabinet. There was no Lokayukta in Gujarat till the Supreme Court intervened. "They will go to Chhattisgarh and will deliver speeches against corruption. Why don't you tell your Chief Minister. They will say the same thing in Karnataka. Why did they bring back a (former) Chief Minister, who faced corruption charges.

 

He also referred to the Nano car project of TATA, which shifted its base from West Bengal to Gujarat and asked them whether they are seeing the Nano on roads.

 

Gandhi said when Congress (Rajiv Gandhi) had talked about bringing computers in the country, two big leaders (Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani) of the BJP had said in Parliament that this will be damaging, take away jobs and will spoil the future of youths. 

 

"Ten years later, the same leaders -- the number one and two in that party with Pramod Mahajan (then Telecom Minister) by their side said they brought the computer revolution in the country. The revolution by Amul was also led by us. BJP leaders were saying they did it," he said.