Congress caught Masood Azhar but BJP released him, says Rahul Gandhi

“Prime Minister calls Nirav Modi, Nirav bhai. Mehul Choksi is addressed as Mehul bhai and Anil Ambani as Anil bhai. They all do marketing for Narendra Modi,” Rahul said. “Every morning and night you will see them (BJP leaders) on television. Where does the money come from? I will tell you. Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya…they provide the money. And you (the public) are robbed of your money.”

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He told the gathering that he had read in the newspapers that the Indian government did not provide details on diamond baron Nirav Modi to the UK government which was willing to extradite him to India.

Talking about irregularities in the Rafale aircraft deal, Rahul referred to the offset contract being awarded to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence, which has no experience in the field of defence manufacturing. “If you give a paper to Anil Ambani and ask him to make a paper-plane, he will not be able to do so,” he said, hinting that it was Ambani’s alleged relationship with Modi that had got him the deal. He said that Gujarati industrialist Gautam Adani also benefited from his alleged closeness to Modi. Speaking about Adani Group winning the bid to operate five airports previously managed by the Airports Authority of India, Rahul said, “Five airports have been handed over to his (PM Modi’s) friend.”

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Rahul told Congress workers to expose the BJP government for its “unfulfilled promises”. “Wherever he (Modi) goes, he tells some lie or the other…In every speech he will say he is a patriot.” In this refrain, when Rahul referred to Modi and uttered the term “chowkidar (watchman)”, the crowd responded in unison in Hindi “is a thief”.

Rahul also reminded the gathering that the BJP had narrowly won the 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat, but “hatred” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lose the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. “In this (Lok Sabha) elections, truth will triumph. Narendra Modiji and hatred will lose,” he said. He reminded Congress workers of how they put up a united fight during the Gujarat elections. “The entire Gujarat knows that BJP managed to escape (the BJP won just 99 of 182 Assembly seats, the Congress won 77). Don’t know how they did it,” he said.

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“It is the Congress worker who did it (reduced BJP’s tally),” he said. “This is a fight of ideology. On one side is hatred and (Nathuram) Godse, on the other side is love, Mahatma Gandhi and the history of Gujarat. Victory will be of Mahatma Gandhi, love, brotherhood, Congress party and Gujarat.” He said both ideologies could be found in Gujarat, and that was the reason why the Congress Working Committee meeting was held in the state.

“I want to tell you that during the upcoming elections, go to each house in Gujarat; in towns and villages. Tell people of Gujarat that Narendra Modiji has been making promises for the last five years. He made the promise of Make in India, and unemployment levels are the highest in the last 45 years. He did not fulfill a single promise made to farmers,” Rahul said.