Rahul Gandhi accuses Narendra Modi of tapping women's phones in Gujarat

PUNE: In an apparent reference to the snooping scandal, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today attacked Narendra Modi alleging that the Gujarat Chief Minister, who spoke about women empowerment, was "tapping" phones of women in the state.

"The Gujarat Chief Minister taps phones of women. The police in the state stalk women. They should first learn to respect women before talking about their empowerment," Rahul said while addressing an election rally here in support of Congress candidate Vishwajeet Kadam.

Claiming that the BJP-ruled states had a dismal record of women welfare in contrast with that of Congress, Rahul alleged that 20,000 women had "disappeared" from Chhattisgarh.

"We have endeavoured to empower women, but the BJP opposed the women's reservation bill," he contended.

Coming down heavily on the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Rahul said about Rs 10 crore were being spent by him on one public meeting and money was also flowing on the newspaper advertisements.

This money was coming from the "toffee development model of Gujarat," he added.

During a rally in Latur in Maharashtra yesterday, Rahul had dubbed the Gujarat model propagated by Modi as a "toffee model", saying it has benefited only one industrialist in the state, ignoring the interests of the farmers and the poor.

"Land of Aurangabad's size...45,000 acres...has been given for a mere Rs 300 crore. This is 'toffee' model not Gujarat model. For Re 1, you get a toffee here. There land was sold at Re one per meter...it was the land of the poor and the farmers," Gandhi had said.