We jailed Reddy bros, Modi freed them: Rahul Gandhi
Mr Gandhi said he did not believe in making personal attacks against him as he was the Prime Minister of the country.
Hubballi: Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has often called the Siddaramaiah government corrupt and a “10 per cent sarkar,” Congress president, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he had no moral right to speak about corruption when he himself shared the dais with several ex-jailbirds among BJP leaders during his campaign in the state.
Addressing a public meeting in Gajendragad town of Gadag district, he deplored the BJP was trying to send several loyalists of mining baron turned politician, Janardhan Reddy, accused of illegal iron ore mining , to the Legislative Assembly, although they too were facing charges of corruption.
“The Reddy brothers have looted the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore. The amount they have looted equals the funds utilised by the UPA government at the Centre across the country under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to provide employment to rural labourers,” he said, adding that although the Congress had jailed the Reddy brothers for their involvement in corruption, Mr Modi had released them after coming to power.
“The money looted by them belongs to the farmers and should have been used to waive off their loans. The farmers, workers and all the poor are with the Congress as it practices what it preaches,” the Congress president said, promising to set up more food processing industries to help farmers and fetch them a good price for their produce if his party returned to power again in Karnataka.
As for Mr Modi’s criticism of him, Mr Gandhi said he did not believe in making personal attacks against him as he was the Prime Minister of the country.
“I always speak about Mr Modi with respect without using bad language. This is the history and culture of the Congress,” he maintained.
Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party for its failure to generate employment as promised, he claimed Karnataka was the main centre of job creation in the country and this had been acknowledged by Mr Modi himself and a few of his Cabinet colleagues.