Rahul hits out at Vajpayee, Advani for deriding his father
India Today Online New Delhi, February 24, 2014 | UPDATED 16:44 IST
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi hit out at senior BJP leaders former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani for deriding the achievements of his father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
Lashing out at the BJP for its habit of deriding Congress achievements and then trying to appropriate them, Gandhi said, "Senior BJP leaders, like Vajpayeeji and Advaniji, derided my father (former PM Rajiv Gandhi) as computer boy. Today, you have mobile phones in your pockets and this is because of his thinking which was ahead of his time."
Rahul Gandhi
"Everybody knows Congress brought about the White Revolution. Their (BJP's) leaders now say they brought about the revolution in Gujarat. They have now laid their hands on Sardar Patel who was very critical of the RSS," he said.
Gandhi, addressing a farmer's meet, called manifesto consultation session, in Sonepat district of Haryana, said it was part of the BJP's thinking to put people against people and garner votes. "In every state, they make one group the insider and all others outsiders. That's their politics," he said.
The Congress, Gandhi said, believed in playing fair politics. "For us, India is an idea," he said. "We believe in giving you all a choice rather than orders which is the BJP's way," he said.
Aiming to woo farmers, the Congress scion said, "The real empowerment of farmers will begin when they will have a say in ticket distribution. When MPs would fear that poor work will force them out. And I will do that in five-seven years."
Talking about corruption, Gandhi said, "There a lot of people who speak on this, and they only speak. But the root of corruption is the lack of people's representation. Today, roughly 500 people select all candidates for all Assemblies and Lok Sabha in a party. We have to raise this number to 10,000 and more."
Slamming the BJP for being a one-man party, Gandhi said, "They believe one man knows everything. They believe in concentrating power in one man. They believe one man can run the country. We believe in the opposite. We believe in decentralising power."
Responding to a question on forcible land acquisition in Bhatta-Parsaul in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi responded, "The land belonged to farmers. But it was taken away forcefully from them for making Formula One track which is used once every year. Even that is now closed."
"Bhatta-Parsaul is just one example. In Niyamgiri in Odisha, the same thing is happening, as elsewhere also."
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