RaGa sounds bugle for ‘Kurukshetra’ battle against BJP

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched a no-holds-barred attack on the BJP leadership and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, urging his party workers to unite like the ‘Pandavas’ against the ‘Kauravas’ ahead of the 2019 polls.

Speaking at his first plenary of the All India Congress Committee as party president, he went on to promise Congress workers in the back benches that he will “demolish the wall” that separates young workers from the leadership.

He pointed out that there was no medley of leaders crowding the stage this time. “I have emptied this stage for you… I want it to be filled with talent like once


Rahul launched a personal attack on PM Narendra Modi, saying, “The name Modi symbolised collusion with crony capitalism”. While his reference was to Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, the BJP came out strongly against this generic connect of surnames. It also took exception to Rahul referring to Amit Shah as an accused though he had been exonerated of all charges.

“Is this how a national party president should speak? Without any sense of responsibility? There’s not a single charge of corruption against Modiji during his tenure as CM and his four years as PM,” said defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman soon after Rahul’s address.


The Congress president was, however, scathing in his attack. On an ideological plane, he took on the RSS, saying that while Mahatma Gandhi languished in prison, “their (ideologue) Savarkar was begging the British to be released”. The RSS, he added, wants to “finish institutions” while the Congress “respects” them. “They don’t like asking questions.

They told Gauri Lankesh and (MM) Kalburgi, ‘question us and you will die…’ For the first time, we saw four Supreme Court judges running to public for justice,” he said.

Elaborating on the Congress’ plans, Rahul Gandhi said the party would give distressed farmers “a mega loan waiver, enhanced minimum support price and hundreds of food processing parks”.

He said his party believed that extending bank loans and access to technology at the district level was one way to ensure skilled youth are able to exploit their worth better.

Rahul asked party workers to put the choice before the people: whether they wanted to live in “Modi’s maya, an imaginary world of Achhe Din, Swachh Bharat and Rs 15 lakh in every bank account”, or the Congress, which “faces the truth”.

The Congress president summed up the plenary through a larger construct to explain his idea. “The world today has two visions — on one side is the American vision and the other side is China’s vision. We want that in next 10 years, there should be an India vision, a middle path for others to follow.”