Leading the Congress' offensive against the Narendra Modi government from the front, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday charged Modi with having brought disrepute to the prime minister's post by the way he took the decision of demonetisation.
Addressing the Congress' Jan Vedna Sammelan in Delhi, Rahul said it was for the first time in history that the prime minister of India was being ridiculed the world over. "Never before has every single economist of any repute said that the prime minister of India took such an incompetent and bad decision," he said, referring to demonetisation.
Rahul said the BJP and the RSS are in the habit of asking what the Congress has done in the last 70 years, and added that the party has not brought disrespect to the PM's post.
He accused the Modi dispensation of weakening constitutional institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India, the judiciary and the Election Commission. "Today there is no institution in this country that is respected," Rahul said.
Rahul said the media was amongst the institutions that has been weakened by the Modi government. He claimed that the media was working under pressure from the government. “The media is scared. If feels it should not say too much.”
Terming demonetisation a "personal decision" of Modi, Rahul said it is affecting the poor, the farmers and labourers the most. "This is not the transformation India was looking for."
He said the prime minister has jumped from one catchy phrase to another—from clean India to surgical strikes to demonetisation— without delivering his promise of achhe din.
Taking a dig at Modi's espousal of yoga, Rahul said he observed Modi and saw that the prime minister is unable to perform Padmasana. “Whoever does yoga properly should be able to do Padmasana.”
"I want to tell the people of India that achhe din will come only when the Congress party comes back to power in 2019," he said.
Rahul said Modi had in one minute turned the earnings made by the poor into mere pieces of paper.
"We want to tell the country that we will protect the spirit of India and its institutions. We will defeat the thought of Modi and Mohan Bhagwat that only two to three people can run the country," he said.
The convention marks the intensification of the Congress' campaign against demonetisation. It was attended by party delegates from all over the country. The participants have been asked to carry out a
campaign against note ban in their respective states.
