If taking away cots is theft, what about Mallya? Rahul asks BJP

GORAKHPUR: Using Tuesday’s ‘khaat loot’ incident in Deoria to attack the Modi government, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said that those who took away cots were being branded as thieves while the liquor baron who escaped with Rs 1,000 crore was being called a ‘defaulter’.

“When people like Vijay Mallya escape from the country with Rs 1,000 crore they are referred to as defaulters. BJP and media label poor farmers as thieves when they take away cots,” said Gandhi while addressing farmers during a ‘khaat sabha’ in Sant Kabir Nagar on Wednesday.

Trying to establish a conversation with farmers, Rahul asked, “Am I correct or not?” The farmers supported it with a cheer.

Gandhi again raised the issue of PM Narendra Modi’s suit which he wore during his visit to the US. “Modiji’s suit was sold for several crores of rupees but he does not have time to waive off loan of farmers,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi took out a road show in Gorakhpur.

He paid floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Town Hall and to Dr BR Ambedkar at Ambedkar crossing. Due to security reasons, the SGP did not allow him to stop at Golghar to pay tribute at the statue of former Prime Minister Late Indira Gandhi.

Addressing the gathering after the road show, Gandhi said that the Prime Minister was busy with his foreign tours while the farmers were crying for help.

“Kisan trast hain, Modiji mast hain (Farmers are suffering while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carefree). Modiji is touring China, USA and Japan. He likes foreign trips, it’s okay. But we want him to think about farmers,” he said.

He said through the Kisan yatra he plans to highlight farmers’ problems and discuss them in Delhi and build pressure on Modi to solve the problems.

Gandhi also accused the Modi government of undoing the efforts made under the UPA regime to eradicate Japanese encephalitis (JE) from Gorakhpur region at Gorakhpur Medical College. Gandhi said Ghulam Nabi Azad, the health minister in UPA government, had taken a number of initiatives to eradicate JE from Gorakhpur region.

Raising the issue of farm loan waiver, Gandhi said, “The Modi government waived off loans of industrialists which were to the tune of Rs 1.4 lakh crore but ignored the farmers. The UPA government had written off farm loan of Rs 70,000 crore.”