Himachal: "Modi reduced import duty on American apples", hurts local growers

Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi "anti-people", senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday, 28 May, said he is misleading people in the name of religion to remain in power.

She added that such language does not suit the country's prime minister.

Modi has started considering himself as God and thinks he would get votes in the name of religion but people will not be misled, she said while addressing a public rally in Gagret, in Himachal's Una district.

Seeking support for the Congress candidate from Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, Satpal Raizada, and the candidate for the Gagret by-assembly poll, Rakesh Kalia, Gandhi Vadra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is "anti-people in general and anti-youth in particular".

She also pointed out that the Modi government had reduced import duty on American apples, which would impact local growers.

Sharpening her attack on the Modi government, the senior Congress leader said the BJP-led Centre had no money for the disaster-hit people of Himachal Pradesh but waived off loans worth Rs 16 lakh crore for rich industrialists, the senior Congress leader said.

During the worst monsoon disaster in the state last year, people got to see the difference between the Congress and the BJP, when every Congress leader and worker was on the ground while the BJP was seen nowhere, she said.

"We work for you, not for power or money and feel that it is our duty," she added.

The BJP-led Centre neither declared the monsoon calamity a national disaster, nor gave any special package for the state—but rather tried to topple the democratically elected Congress government in the state by using money, the Congress leader said, apparently referring to the controversy involving six Congress rebels who had recently joined the BJP.