Rahul Gandhi: No substance in what Modi speaks

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday, November 23, said Indians have realised that there is no substance in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks, adding the latter is mum on the issues he spoke about before the 2014 elections.

Addressing a campaign rally in Vidisha for the November 28 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi said Modi's speeches used to be about corruption, farmers and unemployment.

"Today, he doesn't say anything on these issues. People of the country have realised that there is no substance in what Modi speaks. All his assurances are false," Rahul Gandhi said.

"Before 2014, Narendra Modi promised loan waiver, bonus and better price for farmers' produce; I want to ask him why were the assurances not fulfilled," he said.

When the Congress forms the next government in Madhya Pradesh, the chief minister will work for 18 hours a day to provide employment to youth, Rahul Gandhi said.

"Unemployment and farm crisis are rampant in all the poll-bound states," he said, adding the government has told Parliament that only 450 youth get jobs per day in India, as against 50,000 in China in the same period.

Rahul Gandhi promised loan waiver to farmers "within 10 days of coming to power" in Madhya Pradesh and making the state an "agriculture hub" of the country.

The Congress leader said the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the state destroyed the education sector with Vyapam, the entrance examination, admission and recruitment scam unearthed in Madhya Pradesh in 2013.

On the Rafale deal, Rahul Gandhi said Modi gave Rs 30,000 crore benefit to industrialist Anil Ambani by taking away the contract from the state-owned aerospace company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

"Even BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie have said due processes were not followed in the Rafale deal.

The CBI director was about to start a probe into the Rafale scam but he was removed from his post at 2 am," Rahul Gandhi said.

"If a probe is carried out, only two names, that of Modi and Anil Ambani, would figure in it," he said.

Gandhi said,"Modi speaks of surgical strikes. The fighter aircraft used in the strikes were manufactured at HAL, while Ambani doesn't have any experience of making aircraft".

"Ambani has a debt of Rs 45,000 crore and is yet to repay the money given to him by public sector banks, he said.