Rahul Gandhi: Gujarat model favours two or three industrialists

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said he is confident that his party will get a majority in the Lok Sabha election, as he stepped up the attack on BJP’s candidate for prime minister Narendra Modi and his ‘Gujarat model’. “Ours is an ideological fight. We believe in empowering people. We talk about decentralization. We talk about giving people their right.

They [BJP] believe in concentration of power. They want maximum power to be vested in one person and that’s how the entire country should be run,” he said in an interview in Hindi, which was aired on Headlines Today on Saturday evening. Gandhi, who in recent weeks has ratcheted up his criticism of Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, also fired barbs at the Gujarat model of development.

“Gujarat first stood on its feet on the basis of small businesses. The co-operative movement is what Gujarat draws its strength from.” Gandhi also launched a veiled attack on Gautam Adani, a businessman who is said to be close to Modi, saying, “One man, whose net worth, ten years ago, was Rs 3,000 crore is worth Rs 40,000 crore today.” He did not name Adani, saying that “I don’t want to take names”.

But he continued in the same vein. “He’s worth Rs 40,000 crore. How did this happen? Land the size of Vadodara was given to him. Are you aware at what cost? For Rs 300 crore. A coastline the length of Mumbai was given to him.” Gandhi said the reality of the Gujarat model is that it favours two or three industrialists.

“It’s very simple. Can you name any other industrialists in Gujarat?” In the state, he said, the textile industry is finished… diamond cutters are perishing. Their children are dying of hunger. The state has maximum labour disputes. The hype around Gujarat is simply because of marketing, according to Gandhi. “There is marketing. They come on TV and talk.”