“My grandmother Indira Gandhi had given the slogan of garibi hatao. I say poverty should be abolished and backwardness should be removed because this is the true meaning of politics. Politics does not mean filling pockets of ministers with money and not going to the villages to meet the people,” Rahul said at public meetings, held as part of his mass contact programme.
He promised that the Congress would bring a government that would help the poor, Dalits, backward, farmers and labourers beyond caste lines and requested the people to give the party five years to fulfil its promises. He said poverty would be removed if the people trusted themselves. “Trust yourself and your state, trust me. Give me five years and we will remove poverty from your state and bring about development,” he said.
Addressing a gathering in the parliamentary constituency of his cousin Varun Gandhi, who is BJP MP from Pilibhit, Rahul criticised those who did “Ram ki dalali” to get votes. The time had come that people stop voting parties which talk of caste, religion and sell the name of god to get votes and then forget about development after coming to power. “They sold the name of god to get votes. But why should you vote for them? Did they give you good roads or development,” he said at Pilibhit.
He also criticised Mayawati for forgetting the problems faced by Dalits. “The Chief Minister calls herself the leader of Dalits but she has forgotten the problems of Dalits because she is afraid to come out of high walls,” he said. “I once visited her house in Delhi and trust me she lives in a house with 40-foot high walls. She is afraid to come out. Have you ever seen her in villages?”
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