Making a strong pitch for a united anti-Modi front, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the opposition parties are together in their fight against the ideology of the RSS and the BJP and will defeat the ruling dispensation in the upcoming assembly elections and in the Lok Sabha polls scheduled for 2019.
“We will fight the coming elections as also the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 together. We will defeat the BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and then we will throw them out of power at the Centre,” Rahul Gandhi said, addressing the sixth conference of the 'Sanjhi Virasat Bachao Sammelan' helmed by veteran leader Sharad Yadav.
“The message of today's event is that we are all standing together against the ideology of the BJP and the RSS,” he said.
The Congress president's assertion of the opposition parties taking on Modi and the BJP as a united force came in the backdrop of doubts being raised about the durability of the alliance, which has to deal with conflicting ideologies, ambitions and regional interests. Cracks in the anti-Modi grouping were visible as the opposition's candidate in the election for the post of deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha lost to the ruling side's nominee.
Rahul Gandhi, however, said the opposition parties were different from the BJP in not wanting a BJP-mukt India. “We do not want to kill or destroy them. We only want to tell them that our ideology is stronger than theirs and that we will defeat them,” he said.
Referring to doubts raised about the different ideologies of the opposition parties, the Congress chief said, “We may have different ideologies. But all of us, who are present on this stage here today subscribe to the idea that India is like a river that assimilates everything that falls into it. It is like the Ganga, into which when the Yamuna merges, it also becomes Ganga.”
On the other hand, he said, the BJP, like its president Amit Shah said in his speech, views India as a 'sone ki chidiya' (golden bird), which it wanted to put in a cage and also wanted to loot it. “The Britishers had the same view of India...They are building a cage for this golden bird. They want to loot it,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi reiterated the allegation that the Modi government is helping some industrialists at the cost of the nation. “Faulty implementation of GST and demonetisation has destroyed small businessmen. But the BJP has helped its crony capitalist friends.”
He repeated the charge that the Modi government has helped a private entity at the cost of the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in the Rafale deal. “The chowkidar did not talk about Rafale in his long speech in Parliament,” said Rahul Gandhi, taking a dig at the prime minister, who had earlier declared that he would be a 'chowkidar' (watchman) of the nation and not allow any corruption to take place.
Rahul Gandhi also described Modi's Independence Day speech as a 'big show' and a 'drama'. “School teachers clapped at regular intervals as a cue for the children gathered there to applaud the prime minister's speech,” he said.
The event, which is an effort to get parties together on the common theme of 'protecting the Constitution', saw the participation of a number of opposition leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, J.P. Yadav of RJD, Danish Ali of the JD(U), Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, Chandan Mitra of the Trinamool Congress, Babu Lal Marandi of JVM, Tiruchi Siva of DMK, Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, S. Sudhakar Reddy of CPI, Tariq Anwar of NCP and Sanjeev Kumar of JMM.