Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (Photo Credit: File Image)
New Delhi:
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi extracts wealth from India’s poor and gives it to his “crony capitalist friends” and the big power brokers he is dependent on. Gandhi’s attack on the prime minister came over an Oxfam report which claimed that India’s richest 1 per cent hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population.
“Modi extracts wealth from India’s poor and gives it to his crony capitalist friends & the big power brokers he’s dependent on. 1% of India’s super rich, now own 4 times more wealth than 1 billion of India’s poor,” the former Congress president said in a tweet.
The total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than the full-year budget, said the study titled ‘Time to Care’ which was tagged by Gandhi. Oxfam also said the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet’s population.
Slamming the opposition parties and the “ecosystem” backing them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said those rejected by people in elections have been left with few weapons and were spreading confusion and lies.
He asked the BJP workers to reach out to the public more actively, adding that maintaining direct communication with the masses has always been the party’s strength. Modi also said that the party will face more challenges in the coming days than what it did while in the opposition.
Addressing an event at the party headquarters to felicitate its newly-elected president J P Nadda, Modi said the opposition’s problem is not that BJP was making any mistake but that people continue to bless it.
“Those rejected by public in electoral politics and are no longer acceptable to the masses. They have been left with few weapons. Spreading confusion and lies is one of them... Then you let your ecosystem fuel it. This is what we have often been witnessing,” he said.
Neither did Modi name his rivals not did he refer to any issue during his speech. But his comments come against the backdrop of anti-CAA protests, which have been backed by opposition parties. His government has received flak from many quarters over this issue.
In an apparent reference to the BJP’s nationwide pro-CAA drive, he said senior party leaders have been speaking at 10-15 programmes daily which are being attended by 50,000 to one lakh people.
“But this will not find a mention anywhere,” he lamented, adding that “this game will continue and so will we.”
Some people have objections to the BJP’s ideals, and party workers should not hope for these critics to change their stand, Modi said, adding “This group has never been with us and will not be with us.”
