Rahul Gandhi: Modi is living in fear of being jailed over Rafale scam

Rahul Gandhi

Raiganj (WB): Congress president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday hit out at both BJP and the ruling TMC for failing to waive farm loans and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is living in fear as he might have to go to jail if there is investigation in the Rafale scam. He trained his guns at TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for her comments blaming Congress's inability to put up a fight against BJP as the reason for the saffron party's rise. It is Congress which is fighting against BJP across the country and unlike TMC, which had been part of the NDA in the past, it has never aligned with the saffron party, Gandhi said.

"Just like Narendra Modi has not kept his promises, Mamata Banerjee has not waived the loans of farmers," he said. Reiterating his "chowkidar chor hain" barb at Modi, the Congress president said "Modi's facial expressions have changed as he is suffering from the fear of going to jail if there is an investigation into the Rafale scam.

After Congress comes to power we will conduct investigation into the Rafale scam and send all those guilty, including Modi, behind bars". Referring to the Supreme Court's judgement during the day allowing leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgement and dismissing the government's preliminary objections claiming "privilege" over them, Gandhi said Modi has been exposed before the nation. Congress in its history of 70 years has never aligned with BJP unlike TMC, which had been part of the NDA in the past, Gandhi said.

Banerjee had on Tuesday blamed Congress for the rise of BJP and on Wednesday accussing Congress candidates in Murshidabad district- Abhijit Mukherjee in Jangipur and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Bahrampur - of having tacit understanding with the BJP-RSS. Sharpening his attack on Modi, the Congress president accused him of trying to create two Indias - one for his "friends" like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Anil Ambani and Vijay Mallya and another for poor farmers of the country.

The Congress, Gandhi said at his second election rally in Bengal, would never allow BJP to do that as unlike Modi he "is not afraid of thieves like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi". Referring to NYAY scheme proposed by the Congress which proposes to give Rs 72,000 annually to poorest of the poor in the country, he said the funds for it would come from the pockets of industrialists like Anil Ambani and Nirav Modi who had looted the public money.

"For the last five years the poor and the downtrodden people of the country have tolerated a lot of torture at the hands of Modi and BJP. "Modiji had said that he would give Rs 15 lakh to all bank accounts ... But we will give Rs 72,000 annually to the poorest of the poor whose monthly income is below Rs 12,000", he said. Gandhi claimed that the prime minister has waived loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore taken by 15 super-rich people, whom he dubbed as "Modi's industrialist friends", but couldn't waive the farm loans of the poor farmers.

"If Modi can put money in the bank account of thieves then Congress can also put Rs 72000 in the bank accounts of poor and honest farmers. We keep our promises unlike Modi and Mamata Banerjee," he said. The Congress president said that the party has waived all loans of farmers after coming to power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh in December 2018.

"If thieves like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi do not go to jail after looting public money, then why should farmers just because they have failed to repay their farm loans?" he added.

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