Modi’s friends making Rs 1,600 crore per day, farmers Rs 27: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friends are making Rs 1,600 crore per day, people are being misled in the name of caste and religion, so that they don’t ask basic questions about price rise and unemployment.

Claiming that Rs 27,000 crore has been spent for Yashobhoomi (international convention centre), Rs 20,000 crore for the new Parliament building and Rs 8,000 crore each for two aircraft, Gandhi said the PM does not explain why roads are in such a bad condition, why there is no employment, and why there is price rise.

"He [Modi] doesn't answer why farmers are earning Rs 27 per day while his industrialist friends are making Rs 1,600 crore per day," the Congress leader said.

She was addressing the Mahila Samridhi Sammelan organised by the Bhupesh Baghel government in Bhilai, Chattisgarh.

She recalled a childhood experience when a woman questioned her father, the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, when they were visiting his constituency and the then PM, who was driving the vehicle, got out of the car to talk to people.

"A woman started shouting at my father, complaining about the poor condition of roads. My father answered her and when I asked him if he felt bad (about the attitude of the woman), he said no. He said it was the duty of the woman to ask and his to answer," she said.

The Congress leader said 40 years on from that incident, she had asked a woman in Uttar Pradesh whether she had a gas cylinder and the woman, who sold bangles for a living, said she had one but it was empty.

Highlighting the changes that Indian politics has gone through, Gandhi said that the woman complained about absence of water and electricity, but asserted she would vote for the incumbent MLA and then started talking about caste and religion.

"Values in politics have changed. Sentiments of people are being used for political motives. People are being misled in the name of caste and religion as part of a political conspiracy so that they don't ask basic questions," she said.

Asserting that people were aware earlier as well as now, she said, "Those who ask votes in the name of religion and caste, ask them what they have done for you," she said, adding that the G20 events held by the Narendra Modi government were good as they enhanced the pride of the country, but questioned the expenditure on some fronts.