Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday lashed out at the ruling government at the mega ‘Bharat Bachao’ rally in Delhi, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah should apologise for pushing the country to a “crisis situation”.
In a vehement reaction to BJP’s demand for an apology on his “Rape in India” remark, Rahul Gandhi reiterated that he will not apologise.
“I was told to apologise for something which is right. My name is not Rahul Savarkar. My name is Rahul Gandhi. I will never apologise for truth,” he said while addressing the rally.
“No one from Congress will apologise. It is Narendra Modi who should apologise. He should apologise to the nation. His assistant Amit Shah should apologise to the nation,” he further said.
Attacking the government over the current economic slowdown, Rahul Gandhi said, Today, the GDP growth is at 4 per cent, that too even after the BJP changed the way to measure GDP. If GDP is measured using the previous method, it will be just 2.5 per cent”.
Further training guns at the Centre for violence in the northeast over the amended Citizenship Act and Jammu and Kashmir over Article 370, the Congress leader accused the BJP of “dividing the country on religious lines”.
“The country knows the situation today. They work to create divides – between religions – in J-K and in the northeast. Go to Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh. Go and see what Narendra Modi did there; he has set ablaze those regions,” Gandhi lashed out.
Earlier in her address, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre over the economic crisis, Citizenship (Amendment) Act, farmers’ distress, unemployment, onion price hike and increased reports of rape cases in the country.
Taking a swipe at the BJP government while referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act, Priyanka said laws are being passed which are unconstitutional.
In a parody of BJP’s “Modi hai toh mumkin hai” slogan, she said, “With BJP, onion is priced at Rs 100 – Mumkin hai…with BJP, crores of jobs are being lost – Mumkin hai…with BJP, millions of farmers are suffering – Mumkin hai…”
She further urged people to raise their voices if they love their country. “We will be as much responsible for this as much as the arrogant and lying leaders of BJP-RSS,” she said.
Among the first to address the ‘Bharat Bachao’ rally was senior leader P Chidambaram, who was released on bail earlier this month after spending more than 100 days in Tihar Jail in the INX Media case.
The rally, led by party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, is being held at the Ramlila Maidan to highlight the “divisive and disruptive” policies of the BJP government.
The rally is a show of strength of Opposition unity with many leaders taking part in the grand show.
The party’s Overseas Congress has also joined the ‘Bharat Bachao’ rally through demonstrations around the world.
The rally was earlier scheduled to be held on November 30 but was later postponed to December 14 in view of the Winter Session of the Parliament, which concluded on Friday.