New Delhi, December 18: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday declined questions on the conviction of former party MP Sajjan Kumar in the anti-Sikh carnage of 1984 and said he was speaking to the press on the issue of farm loan waiver and Rafale and the fact that PM Narendra Modi has created two Indias, one for the poor and the other for the rich.
In an impromptu press interaction in Parliament, Gandhi attacked the Prime Minster for failing to waive farm loans in four-and-a-half years of his rule and instead waiving Rs 3.5 lakh crore worth of loans of 15 corporates.
He accused the PM of stealing money from the poor and filling the coffers of the rich through demonetisation, which he called the “biggest scam of the world”.
Flanked by senior Congress leaders, Gandhi said the entire Opposition will force the government to waive off farmers loans.
“We will exert pressure on Modi ji to waive off farmers loans,” Gandhi said amid reports that the Government was planning a major farm loan waiver before 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Asked about Sajjan Kumar’s conviction in the 1984 riots, Gandhi said: “This press conference is about farmers and about Rafale and the failure of the Government to waive off even a single rupee of farmers loans. Prime Minister waives Rs 45,000 crore of a corrupt man like Anil Ambani. Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the world. And on Rafale we will force a JPC probe,” said Gandhi.
On Rafale, Gandhi said the government is escaping discussion on the issue but “there will be a JPC on Rafale”.
“You had said you will discuss Rafale. So why are you running away now,” asked Gandhi.
On farm loan, Gandhi said the Opposition won’t let the PM sleep at night and will force a loan waiver.
“We want to ask the government when will it give a farm-loan waiver?” said Gandhi crediting party governments in Chhattisgarh and MP for waiving farm loans within six hours.
‘New low’
The BJP called Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s remark a new low in the country’s public discourse.
Nothing better can be expected from Gandhi, whose party ensured that Indians did not sleep during its 60 years of rule due to rampant corruption, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
“Friends, I am given to understand that Rahul Gandhi today said that he won’t let Prime Minister Narendra Modi sleep. This is a new low in the public discourse of the country,” Prasad told reporters.
Hitting out at Gandhi, Prasad said he should come to Parliament and debate the Rafale issue in Parliament.
Daring the Congress and its chief to show “courage” and discuss the fighter jet deal “eye to eye” in the House, Prasad said: “Don’t run away from the debate”.
He added that the Congress was fleeing a debate on the issue because it had many skeletons from defence deals in its cupboard.
Referring to Gandhi addressing the issue of farmer distress and saying that the Congress and other opposition parties will ensure that all farm loans are waived, Prasad declared it was just drama. The Congress, he said, had been in power for about 60 of the last 70 years. “What have they done for farmers? They are doing just drama now,” he said.
Source Tribune India
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