Modi backing 5-10 industrialists as farmers suffer, says Rahul in Amethi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of playing in the hands of select industrialists even though the middle-class, the poor and the small-time traders were facing troubled times due to the policies of his government.

"Narendra Modi has broken the backbone of traders and is playing in the hands of 5-10 industrialists," he said, further claiming while the Prime Minister had done nothing for the farmers, his government wrote off bad loans worth ₹2 lakh crore of select 15 elite businessmen.

On a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi, the Congress leader said people were wondering as to what Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were doing, as the problems were piling up, leaving the people with very little leg space to grow.

"The Prime Minister has taken your money through the GST and demonetization and given it to the likes of fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallaya and Nirav Modi. Modi has spelt doom for the farmers," said Rahul.

He also told people at a meeting that the bullet train promised by Prime Minister Modi, envisaged to run between Gujarat and Maharashtra, was a "magic train" that would never become a reality.

The 48-year-old politician also blamed the Prime Minister for, what he called, poor international relations and said that while the Prime Minister hosted the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gujarat, their armed forces encroached onto Doklam.

Gandhi said that while the RSS saw people through the prism of religion and caste, the Congress had feelings for every one as human beings.