Modi a 'chowkidar' who lets in thieves: Rahul
Modi was disrespecting the people of Andhra Pradesh by breaking all promises made to Andhra Pradesh during bifurcation.
WeForNews Desk
Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Sep 18 (IANS) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a 'chowkidar' who opens the door and lets thieves in.
Addressing a public meeting in this Andhra Pradesh town, he said that if Modi was a real 'chowkidar' he would have sacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for allowing fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to leave the country.
Gandhi said Modi did not sack Jaitley because he himself was corrupt.
The Congress leader cited the Rafale deal in support of his allegation.
He said after becoming the Prime Minister, Modi changed the contract signed during the previous UPA government to buy 126 fighter jets. He alleged that the price for each jet was increased to Rs 1,600 crore from Rs 526 crore decided earlier.
Gandhi said the contract was snatched from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which had 70 years experience of making aircraft, and given to a private company.
He said Jaitley himself admitted that Mallya met him and told him that he was leaving the country. "The only possibility is that the Finance Minister allowed Mallya to leave the country in exchange for something. There was a deal between them."
Gandhi said demonetization and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) were aimed at taking money from people's pocket and putting them in the pockets of some of the richest businessmen.
Alleging that the Modi government erased NPAs of Rs 1.3 lakh crore of the richest people, Gandhi promised that if voted to power in 2019, farm loan waiver will be the first thing the Congress would do.
Addressing the public meeting and earlier interacting with students, he alleged that Modi was disrespecting the people of Andhra Pradesh by breaking all promises made to Andhra Pradesh during bifurcation.
Gandhi promised that immediately after coming to power, the Congress would accord special category status to Andhra Pradesh as per the commitment made by the government of India when unified Andhra Pradesh was split in 2014.
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Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president and principal opposition leader in Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday termed the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government's statements on the Ramateertham issue as 'dangerous thinking'.
He said the government is allegedly doing this with an ulterior motive to terrify and suppress the voice of the opposition cadres and the general public.
In December last year, unidentified miscreants had cut off the head of the Lord Ram's idol at the Ramateertham hilltop temple in Nellimarla village in Vizianagaram district, which triggered a massive controversy with the opposition parties accusing the ruling party of allegedly ignoring the temples' safety and security.
Naidu also condemned the arrest of party member Kala Venkatrao on Wednesday, asserting that he was a non-controversial leader with 40 years of experience.
"The government's attitude is dangerous as it wants all the opponents to either kill themselves or get killed by criminals under suspicious circumstances," Naidu claimed.
Training his guns on the police department, the TDP supremo demanded that Director General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang should explain what crime did Venkatrao commit.
"False cases have been filed against TDP leaders in the name of attack on an MP's car. The DGP should explain why no preventive steps are taken nor any cases are filed against the YSRCP MP," Naidu said.
He added that it is high time for Sawang to follow the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and safeguard the rights of the people, and not follow the 'Jagan Reddy Penal Code'.
"If the DGP cannot overcome pressure from the ruling YSRCP leaders to implement the rule of law, he should resign and go home. The government is just daydreaming that the TDP leaders could be suppressed with fabricated cases and false arrests," the former Chief Minister said.
Naidu also claimed that there is no proper response from the CM or the DGP despite the sawing away of Lord Ram's idols and 150 alleged temple attacks.
"The DGP should at least respect his uniform. Otherwise he should quit expressing his inability to stop the atrocities," Naidu said.
Meanwhile, the opposition leader welcomed the high court order to conduct rural local body elections and said that the YSRCP leaders should realise that judges may change, but justice will remain.
"They resorted to election irregularities which is why 27 per cent unanimous results were seen in the MPTC and ZPTC elections. The fake CM and his party leaders are trying to use rowdyism to terrify and suppress all sections of voters," Naidu alleged.
He also asked Sawang how permission to the 'dharma parirakshana yatra' could be cancelled on Thursday after granting it on Wednesday.
Currently, a huge controversy is raging in the southern state over the alleged attacks on temples. While the YSRCP is blaming the TDP for these incidents, the latter is accusing the YSRCP of not protecting the temples and being lax about their safety.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday claimed that bureaucrats not listening to the common people in Bihar, was proven once again on Wednesday night when the Patna District Magistrate behaved rudely with him.
Tejashwi went to Eco Park to meet TET qualified job aspirants on Wednesday night.
"As we all knew that these job aspirants had faced a brutal lathicharge on Tuesday evening in Patna, we went to meet them at Eco Park. When we spoke to Patna DM Chandrasekhar Singh, he behaved rudely until I disclosed my identity," Tejashwi said on Thursday.
"This is an example of how bureaucrats are behaving with the common people of Bihar. We have time and again raised the issue of the arrogant behaviour of bureaucrats. They do not even listen to public representatives. This has been proven again with the arrogant reply of the Patna DM," Tejashwi said.
"A team of Patna police manhandled our security personnel on Thursday. What is the security threat they are looking for? We have been living here for years. People not satisfied with this government, generally come here to meet us. It is our duty to meet them and address their grievances according to our capacity. Are they trying to prevent them from coming here to meet us?" he asked.
"Has Bihar police cracked the Rupesh Singh murder case with 9 days gone by? Are the people of Bihar feeling secure now. Why is the Bihar police sending all patrol teams to 10, Circular Road (his mother former CM Rabri Devi's residence) and not patrolling anywhere else?" Tejashwi asked.
On the 35th birthday of Sushant Singh Rajput, the Maharashtra Congress on Thursday slammed the opposition BJP, alleging that because of its machinations, the late Bollywood actor's soul is deprived of 'moksha' (salvation).
Paying homage to the memory of Sushant, Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said in his death on June 14, 2020, the film industry lost a highly talented and upcoming star and his loss would be felt for long.
Despite a period of eight months, the real reasons behind his death have not been revealed to the people of the country although three central agencies like CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau have been deployed for the probe, he said.
"However, this is also a time to remember how the BJP blatantly exploited his death for its dirty politics in Maharashtra and Bihar and gaining on other fronts. They used the incident to destabilise the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra and misused his name to corner votes in the Bihar election last year," Sawant alleged.
Blaming the BJP for "preventing 'moksha' for Sushant's soul", he alleged that the saffron party tried to manipulate his death to defame the Maharashtra government of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and misrepresented it to the masses in the Bihar election.
"For its political designs, the BJP has deployed CBI, ED and NCB, but nothing has come out their probes so far We have been repeatedly demanding that the CBI should table the facts before the country on what has emerged from its probe. Nothing has come out even in the investigations by ED, NCB," Sawant pointed out.
He demanded to know why the CBI is silent on the circumstances leading to Sushant's reported suicide, why the BJP politicised his death and attempted to portray it as a 'murder', what was the outcome of the ED-NCB probe which were brought into the case and other aspects.
Sawant rued that owing to the BJP, Sushant's sou' has not been allowed to "rest in peace" and he has also been deprived of the respect and honour due to him after his death.
Earlier, the ruling allies, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, and Congress have consistently demanded that the CBI should reveal its findings in the case to clear the doubts in the minds of the people.
On its part, the CBI has responded by saying that it has not closed the Sushant death probe case and investigations still continue.