At Gujarat rally and Twitter, Rahul Gandhi attacks govt over demonetisation, GST, ease of doing business report

There was also a ‘selfie moment’ when Gandhi welcomed a college student atop his matador and clicked pictures with her while receiving flowers. Tribals in Bharuch welcomed the Congress vice-president with a traditional ‘Mandva dance’, as chants of “Congress Aave Che (Congress is coming)” rent the air.

Gandhi kicked off the day by taking on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and asked him to meet small and medium businessmen to know if the economic situation in the country had really improved. “The entire country will shout and say ease of doing business is absent, you have destroyed it, your demonetisation and GST have ruined it,” Gandhi said. Jaitley retorted by saying the UPA’s “ease of doing corruption” had been replaced by NDA’s “ease of doing business”. “The difference between the UPA and NDA – The ease of doing corruption has been replaced by the ease of doing business,” the Finance Minister tweeted.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi with senior leader Ashok Gehlot in Gujarat on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)

Earlier in the day, Gandhi tweeted a famous Ghalib verse to say that Jaitley was deluding himself. “Sabko maloom hai ‘ease of doing business’ ki haqeeqat, lekin khud ko khush rakhne ke liye ‘Dr Jaitley’ ye khayal achha hai (everybody knows the reality of ease of doing business, but this thought, Dr Jaitley, is good to keep yourself happy).”

Gandhi, who is supposed to take over the reins of Congress later this month, also trained his guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the PM had failed to understand that all cash was not black money and all black money was not in cash. “They (BJP) talked a lot about Swiss bank accounts. Now, they are in power for the last three years. You tell me how many Swiss bank account holders are in jail? Give me the name of one person Modiji has sent to jail?” he asked.

Demonetisation, he said, had hit small traders, workers, farmers and small businesses as they dealt in cash. “This decision destroyed our economy. Note ban reduced our GDP by 2 per cent,” he said. The entire country had been reduced to tears, but the PM was not ready to accept demonetisation was a huge mistake, Gandhi said. Reiterating that GST was “Gabbar Singh Tax”, the Congress Vice-President said he coined the term because the new tax regime had snatched the hard-earned money of poor citizens.

Gandhi then took on the Vijay Rupani-led state government and said Gujarat was the only state where no community was happy and named OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani to buttress his claim. Thakor, who recently joined the Congress, shared the dais with Gandhi.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi meets supporters in Bharuch on Wednesday. (Source: PTI)

“The only ones who are not complaining are five-10 influential industrialists… They are the only ones who are supporting Modiji and BJP,” Gandhi said. He claimed the loan given to Tata Motors for the Nano plant was enough to waive the debt burden of Gujarat farmers. “The farmers in Gujarat are crying for help, as they want farm loan waivers. Modiji (as then Gujarat CM) gave loans worth Rs 33,000 crore for Tata Nano. He even gave your land to the company. I want to tell you that the government could have waived all your farm loans with that Rs 33,000 crore,” Gandhi said.

Taking a dig at the “Gujarat model”, Gandhi said the reality was that people don’t get back anything despite giving money to the corporates. “Though Modiji gave that much money to the company, you will hardly see any Nano car on roads. This is Modiji’s Gujarat model, where you do not get anything back despite giving that much money to corporates,” he said.

Slamming Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, he said the entire focus of the government was on five-10 corporates who received all facilities such as land, water and electricity. “While China provides employment to 50,000 youth every day, India provides jobs to just 450 people per day. Over 30 lakh are unemployed in Gujarat alone. This is happening because everything is being done for some five-10 industrialists only,” he alleged.