Sending out a message of equality of religions, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today visited places of importance of all faiths and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not paying heed to the problems of farmers.
Rahul, who arrived here on his ‘Deoria to Dilli kisan yatra’ during which he is raising issues related to farmers, visited the Cathedral church, Raidas temple, Nadva (Islamic seminary) as well as a gurdwara and paid obeisance.
He met the rector of Nadva and president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and also prayed at the Cathedral besides interacting with students in the madrassa.
He also held a road show in the run-up to the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh covering major parts of the state capital.
Rahul atop a bus along with state party president Raj Babbar and Congress’s chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit held the road show, enthusing party workers and supporters.
As slogan shouting supporters greeted Rahul with flower petals, the roadshow converged at Chowk where he addressed the people telling them about the need for taking out the yatra.
“We have been forced to take out this yatra to highlight the plight of farmers... They are not getting the right price of their produce... Farmers are with us, this yatra will go up to Delhi where we will organise a meeting and tell Modiji what is in the heart of farmers,” he said.
Promising that Congress will waive loans of farmers if it returns to power in the state, Rahul said that the Modi government has merely waived loans of big industrialists and so is not in a position to tell the people about it.
The Congress leader reiterated that his suggestion of bringing a ‘kisan budget’ will also benefit the central government.
He also recalled his agitation in Bhatta Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and said attempts were made to snatch farmers’ land there under the BJP government.
So far, Rahul has addressed 17 khat sabhas, 12 mega shows and over 500 public meetings during his yatra, a Congress leader said.