Haridwar (Uttarakhand): Rahul Gandhi lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leaving protesting farmers in the lurch for a year amid the pandemic. He pledged that Congress would form a government in Uttarakhand that would never shut out people.
Addressing election rallies in Haridwar and at Kichcha in Udham Singh Nagar district, the former Congress chief alleged that the Prime Minister only cared for his billionaire friends and left the rest to fend for themselves. The Congress, on the other hand, intends to give a government that will work taking the people along, he said.
In Haridwar, where he performed 'Ganga Aarti' at the famous Har Ki Pauri Ghat, Gandhi said, "We will give you a Chief Minister, who comes to you, listens to your problems and runs the government accordingly."
"The government's doors will always be open for you we will work in partnership with you." He described the farmers as the country's backbone and alleged that the purpose of the agri laws was to "enfeeble the farmers and strengthen the hands of a few billionaire industrialists at their expense".
"Narendra Modi is a 21st-century king who thought it below dignity to talk to farmers," Gandhi alleged.
Accompanied by the Congress' Uttarakhand campaign committee head Harish Rawat, the party's state unit chief Ganesh Godiyal, in-charge for Congress in the state Devender Yadav and Leader of Opposition Pritam Singh, he performed 'Ganga Aarti' in Haridwar.
He then posted on Twitter three videos of himself participating in the 'aarti' amid 'Har Har Gange' chants by the huge crowd present there. With one video of himself offering prayers, Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, "Salutations to Ganga ji! Praying for the bright future of Uttarakhand." Assembly polls in Uttarakhand are slated to be held on February 14.
Addressing a poll rally earlier in the day, Gandhi said, "India does not have a Prime Minister today. It has a king, who believes that when he takes a decision everyone else should keep quiet." Congress intends to provide a government that works in partnership with farmers, the youths and the poor, he said. "If a prime minister does not work for all he cannot be a Prime Minister. By that measure, Narendra Modi is not a Prime minister," the Congress leader told the 'Uttarakhandi Kisan Swabhiman Samvad' rally in Kichcha.
"We don't want two Indias but one India. We want the injustice to an end." Gandhi congratulated the farmers for their resistance to the three farm laws, which were ultimately rescinded by the BJP-led Union government.
He said Congress stood with them in their struggle because they were being subjected to injustice.
Harish Rawat and Ganesh Godiyal shared the dais with Rahul Gandhi at the rally which was his first in the state after the announcement of poll dates.
At the Haridwar rally, Gandhi said the four promises made in the Congress manifesto for Uttarakhand were not the "false promises of Modi" but ones that will be fulfilled.
The four poll promises are jobs to four lakh people, limiting LPG price to Rs 500, paying Rs 40,000 per annum to five lakh poor families and taking healthcare facilities to people's doorsteps.
Training his guns at the Prime Minister, Gandhi said, "Where are the two crore jobs Modi had promised, where is the Rs 15 lakh he had promised to put in everyone's account. Did he double the income of farmers?"
