Morena: Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi took potshots at the BJP party on Saturday during his campaign for coming elections in Madhya Pradesh and said that the ruling BJP is working for the few rich people by catering to their interests and ignoring the farmers and other sections of the society.

Among other issues, he also took up the issue of multi-billion Rafale fighter jet deal with France to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr. Gandhi promised that the party will make it sure to implement tribal rights if voted to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajashthan and Chhattisgarh which are slated to go to elections in November and December.

“If you want to help out the rich, do it..but also help the farmers and other poor sections of the society. If Rs. 3 lakh crore of the rich can be written off, then why not give such concessions to farmers and other poor sections of the society?” he asked.

During an event organised by a tribal organisation, Adivasi Ekta Parishad, he said, “The tribal bill is not a gift, but right of the tribal people. The tribal people must have their rights over land, water and forests.”

The best example is the ‘Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006’, which is a key piece of forest legislation passed when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre.

The act is also called as the tribal bill and it concerns the rights of forest dwelling communities to land and other resources denied to them for decades due to colonial forest laws.

Mr. Gandhi charged the BJP government at the center with diluting the consent clause in the Land Acquisition Bill and also weakening the Panchayati Raj institutions.

The Congress President alleged that back in the year 2016, demonetization exercise, black money turned into white and nobody was sent to jail and no one among the citizens received Rs. 15 lakh in their bank account as was promised by the Modi.

He said that any decision that he wants to implement, first he considers whether the policy will benefit the poor.

“If the decision will harm the interests of the poor, I never go ahead with its implementation. On the other hand, the BJP thinks whether its decisions will benefit the rich,” Gandhi said.

“The BJP goes ahead with the implementation only if the decision benefits the rich,” he added.

He also claimed that all the promises he makes are fulfilled by him in any case.

“I am in politics since 2004 and you can check my speeches. Give me one example where I have made promises like depositing Rs. 15 lakh in your bank account,” he said.

“In Karnataka, I promised that if the Congress returns to power, farmers will get a loan waiver. Accordingly, the chief minister implemented the decision after the new government was formed,” the Congress chief said.

Mr. Gandhi claimed that the BJP party wanted to implement the rural employment guarantee scheme MNREGA and Right to Food policies of the UPA through bureaucracy, while the erstwhile dispensation had helped in empowering panchayats and pradhans to take crucial decisions with regard to them.

“The bureaucracy doesn’t want these schemes, so their budgetary allocations have been reduced,” he alleged.

He also took this opportunity to target the Modi government for allowing liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamantaire Nirav Modi flee the country by taking away with them public money.

“Nirav Modi robbed your money from the banks to the tune of Rs. 35,000 crore and fled the country. Similarly, Vijay Mallya took away Rs. 10,000 crore from the banks and informed (Finance Minister Arun Jaitley) before leaving the country,” Mr Gandhi said.

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