Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused rival political parties of concentrating power in the hands of the PM or the CM while according to his party’s ideology, it belongs to people. Gandhi said that because of the centralisation of power as was being done by the BJP-led Centre, the country and states suffer.
Because of demonetisation and the GST implementation, small shopkeepers and medium enterprises suffered the most while only two-three billionaires were benefited, he said. "Be it Narendra Modiji, BJP or other parties, including AAP. All these parties concentrate power. They give power to the CM and the PM," he said.
"According to the Congress ideology, power belongs to people and we want to give it to people," he said. Recalling that his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had talked about the Panchayati Raj system, Gandhi said power should be given to sarpanches and leaders of local bodies.
"Punjab should not be run by bureaucracy," he said. He also attacked the BJP-led Centre for bringing farm laws, which were later repealed after protests by farmers. He said, “The main aim of the legislations was that what belonged to farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers be given to the country's five to six billionaires.” He lauded farmers of Punjab for forcing the Centre to repeal the laws.
He also flayed the Centre over unemployment. "The country today has the highest unemployment," he said. Lauding the Channi government, he said it brought down fuel prices and power tariff. “The government did a historic work, which does not happen in other states,” he said. "Why we did it? Because we understand that the poor are today bearing the maximum burden," he said. The entire burden has been put on the poor in the country, he said, adding, "we want to lessen that burden."
Gandhi also spoke about mobilising resources from mining, transport and cable TV sectors for the welfare of the state. "How to decentralise power in Punjab? Question arises. First of all, your money is in four areas, which are liquor, mining, transport and cable TV. Thousands of crore is in these system and they do not reach you," he said. "We have made a beginning but we do not need evolution. We need revolution and we want to give your money to you and in these four areas, we will not do evolutionary job but revolutionary," said Gandhi.
He also spoke about business clusters and hubs. "The money mobilised from alcohol, mining, transport and cable will be used to turn these hubs into world-class centres of excellence," he said. "The whole world should see 'made in Punjab', '' Gandhi said as he emphasised on boosting local industry. He also promised that around 160 government will be provided to people on the internet if his party’s government returns to power in the state.
Gandhi stressed the most important thing in Punjab is peace and brotherhood. "The Congress is the only party which belongs to everyone. You all are ours," he said. "Our experience is that thousands of Congress workers gave their blood," he said. "No matter what happens, the Congress will never allow peace to be disturbed in Punjab. We will die but will never allow it to be disturbed," he said. “We know how it is to be done and we have done it,” he said.
With PTI Inputs
