PM Modi Refuses To Have Debate With Me, Says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi:Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a poll rally in the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency in Delhi. He said that the Prime Minister is giving interviews to different news channels and outlets but refuses to have a debate with him, as proposed by some eminent citizens.

Talking about the Congress and the INDIA bloc plans if they are able to form a government, Mr Gandhi said, "We will throw the Agniveer scheme in the dustbin, simplify GST and help small businessmen rather than big industrialists."

Reiterating his party's poll promise, the former Congress president said that a list of poor people in the country will be prepared. "One woman will be selected from each of these families. Rs.1 lakh will be deposited in their bank account every year," he said.

He alleged that Prime Minister Modi has done nothing for small businessmen but gave Rs.16-lakh crores to big industrialists.

Taking a dig at Mr Modi, Mr Gandhi, referring to a TV interview of the Prime Minister where he had spoken about surgical strikes, said, “Modi Ji was telling the Air Force officers before the surgical strike that our fighter planes will not be visible due to clouds. Even a six-year-old knows that radars can catch 15 planes in any weather.”

Mr Gandhi said: 'You tell me whatever you want the Prime Minister to say. I will get him to say the same in his speeches. I told him that you do not take the names of Adani and Ambani in your speeches. After 2-3 days, Mr Modi talked about Adani and Ambani.”

Slamming the BJP-led NDA government's highhandedness, Mr Gandhi said that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren were put in jail because of political vendetta.

"A list of Congress leaders has also been prepared. Leaders from several parties have been made to defect to the BJP under the pressure from the CBI and ED," he said, adding, 'One more person arrested from Delhi. I say it is good...take as many as you can take... We do not want cowardly leaders. We want ‘babbar sher’ (lions), as our fight is to save the Constitution.”

Mr Gandhi urged the Congress workers and the AAP to work together and ensure victory for their alliance in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.

"It's interesting that I'll vote for the AAP and Mr Kejriwal will vote for the Congress in these elections," he said, adding that the first aim of everyone should be to save the Constitution from those "hell-bent on destroying it".

Under a seat-sharing arrangement between the two constituents of the INDIA bloc in Delhi, the Congress has fielded candidates in three of the seven Lok Sabha seats, while the AAP is contesting the remaining four.