Narendra Modi lacks will to listen to the people: Rahul Gandhi

'Demonitisation only proved to be advantageous for BJP', says Gandhi

During his election campaign, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi alleged that the current government of Narendra Modi lacks the will to listen to the people and facilitates crony capitalism.

Gandhi made these accusations while addressing public meetings at Kheda and Nadiad in southern Ahmedabad at the beginning of the second leg of his four-phase Gujarat tour.



“Be it GST or demonetisation, Modiji implemented policies without listening to anyone. Congress government will listen to farmers, labourers, women and small businessmen. They have not been heard in the past 22 years of the BJP government in Gujarat,” he said.

At Nadiad, he criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, suggesting that demonitisation only proved to be advantageous for the BJP.

“Demonetisation finished so many small businesses. From its ashes came out a company... Amit Shah’s son’s company... it’s genie of Modiji’s start up India, Make in India”, Gandhi said pointing to a news story that said Shah’s son Jay’s company grew multifold after 2014 and Shah’s promotion as BJP’s national president.

At Santrampur Temple campus, Gandhi questioned a small trader among the crowd, “Can your company make Rs 80 crore from Rs 50,000 in three to four months?” The crowd replied, “No”.

He added, “I want to ask now, where is the guard. Modiji had said he wants to become guard for you, not PM.”

The Congress leader further said, “Modiji had said ‘Na khaunga, na khane doonga’ (won’t take bribes, nor let anyone take). But where has that guard gone now?”



The Congress leader is set to visit five districts of central Gujarat covering 500 km in three days. In the first phase, Gandhi had travelled through Saurashtra region last week.

As he began the day’s campaign, the Gujarat HC converted capital punishment of 11 convicts in the Godhra train burning case to life sentences. Central Gujarat was the worst affected in the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Gandhi is also scheduled to visit some temples in the area.

Rahul Gandhi’s latest trip comes right after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on Sunday to his hometown Vadnagar where he made several promises and launched the “Intensified Mission Indradhanush” scheme which aims to speed up the full immunisation coverage and concentrate more on urban areas and other regions of low immunisation coverage.

This story originally appeared on the Hindustan Times.