Rahul Gandhi in Amethi: I don’t talk of hatred but respect, Congress will contest LS polls with full strength

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of favouring industrialists over farmers even though they have been facing an unprecedented crisis.

Addressing party workers in his parliamentary constituency Amethi, the Congress chief said while farmers were in distress with ever-mounting debts, Modi was busy helping his industrialist friends by waiving off their loans.

He also accused Modi of overlooking state-owned aerospace and defence company, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which had been making planes for the past 70 years and giving contracts to make jet fighter planes to help an industrialist friend.

He said the "chowkidar" has siphoned off the money meant for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and given it to Nirav Modi, the diamond merchant who ran off to foreign shores with it.

On the second day of his two-day visit to Amethi, Gandhi also said that the name of Modi was synonymous with hatred, which was causing a huge loss to the country.

"In this country Narendra Modi means hatred. When the Congress government comes to power, we will end this," he added.

He also termed demonetisation as the biggest scam of independent India in which millions of Indians were forced to stand in lines outside banks.

"I do not talk of hatred but of respect," the Amethi MP said.

On the farm loan waiver promise of the BJP, he said unlike Modi, "we did what we promised" referring to the loan waivers by the Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where they stormed to power.

He told the gathering that he will "101 per cent initiate work on the proposed food park in Amethi" which he alleged had been halted by the BJP government.

The Congress leader also came down heavily on the removal of Alok Verma as the CBI director and said that fearing a probe in the Rafale scam, the Prime Minister moved to remove Verma at 1.30 a.m.

"When the Supreme Court said no to that, he was reinstated but again removed within two hours," he said.

Wrapping up his two-day Amethi tour, Congress president Rahul Gandhi also exuded confidence that it will win the next UP Assembly polls.

"We will contest the Lok Sabha polls with full strength and will win the next UP Assembly polls," he said.

The Congress chief was addressing a public meeting in Amethi before returning to Delhi at the end of his two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency.