Chennai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and DMK president M K Stalin crowned each other kings using the dais at Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, where they addressed an election rally after coming together as alliance partners for the 2019 general elections.
While Stalin reiterated that Rahul would become the next prime minister of India, for his part, the Congress president assured that Stalin would become the next chief minister of Tamilnadu.
Speaking at the rally after Stalin, Rahul fired on all cylinders against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said Modi was interested in promoting only his wealthy friends and failed to anything for the poor of the country.
Calling Modi a liar for not keeping any of his 2014 election promises, the Nehru-Gandhi scion accused him of handing over Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani.
Referring to the Rafale fighter jet issue, he said the UPA government had struck a deal to buy a plane at Rs 526 crore from Dassault and hand over the contract to HAL. But Modi reversed the decision, carried out parallel negotiations with Dassault and handed over the contract to Anil Ambani. A plane now costs Rs 1,526, said Rahul.
He harked back on what saint-poet Tiruvalluvar said about truth: unmai vellum (truth will triumph). But, he said humorously, “truth will put Modi in jail”.
Taking up his by now common election agenda, he said if the Congress comes to power at the Centre, it would tackle joblessness that is at a 45 year high now.
Demonetisation and GST have destroyed the informal sector, said the Congress president and assured the huge gathering that his government would make it one tax, simple tax and minimum tax. This would save the shopkeepers and small unit owners from unnecessary GST trouble.
Taking up issues related to Tamilnadu, he said the plan was to make it the manufacturing capital of the country. He said the strategy was to make it the focal point of combating the Chinese making inroads into the country commercially.
In the Congress manifesto, there would enough scope for entrepreneurs to shine. Unlike Modi, who hands over crores to his cronies, banks would liberally support youngsters to become entrepreneurs.
Rahul elaborated on the guaranteed minimum income for every citizen scheme meant for the poor. Though Modi had promised that he would put Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every India and did not keep his promise, the Congress would ensure the success of this scheme, he said.
He spoke highly about the farmers and fishermen of Tamilnadu. While he said he would do everything to mitigate the problems of farmers, he said a separate ministry would be formed for the sake of fishermen.
Apart from assuring that the Congress would ensure that the women’s reservation bill was passed in Parliament if voted to power, Rahul said there would be 33 per cent reservation for women in all Central government jobs.