Rahul Gandhi hits back at BJP over Morbi bridge collapse

Rajkot: Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, criticised the BJP on Monday over the collapse of the Morbi bridge, saying, "In the horrifying incident some 150 persons have died, I will not politicise the issue, in such a huge tragedy, security guards are arrested, but no action against those responsible. It does create suspicion, is it because bigwigs have good relations with the BJP."

While addressing public meetings in Rajkot and Mahuva (Surat), Gandhi tried to connect the Bharat Jodo Yatra with Gujarat. He said the "party has derived the inspiration for the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Mahatma Gandhi's pre-independence movement, during which he united India and led the freedom movement."

Criticizing the NDA government's ill-planned execution of a few initiatives, he said, "Ill-planned demonetisation, poor GST draft and execution and several forms to be filled for credit benefits, the haphazard announcement of lockdown in the country to counter the corona epidemic have derailed the country's economy, put small and medium scale industrialists at hardship, forcing them to close units, thousands of labourers rendered jobless had to walk thousands of kilometres to reach their native places."

Attacking the Narendra Modi government, Gandhi said that the present government has created two nations within the country. One is of the super-rich who can dream of anything and they can have it, be it seaports or airports, or can buy public sector, and then there is the country of the poor and the middle class who have to struggle for everything, a section of them pushed to poverty, IANS reported.

He narrated how the farmers of the country are feeling. Citing an example, he said during the Bharat Jodo Yatra when farmers met him they complained that "Three four multi-billionaire industrialists take millions of rupees as loans and that is waived, whereas farmers take loans of a few thousand or lakhs of rupees and they are not waived, why?" He added that when he sees the farmers' plight it pains him.

Earlier, when he was addressing tribals in Mahuva in Surat district, he initially asked former GPCC president Bharatsinh Solanki to translate his speech into Gujarati but a few minutes later on public demand he directly addressed the crowd in Hindi.