Taking away MP tag won't stop me from representing people of Wayanad: Rahul Gandhi
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his disqualification from the Lok Sabha is only going to deepen the relationship with the people of the Wayanad constituency, which had elected him with a record margin of over four lakh votes in 2019.
Gandhi, who arrived in Wayanad for the first time after his disqualification, was given a rousing reception by Congress workers.
Thousands of Congress workers joined Rahul and his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the nearly 1-km “Satyamev Jayate” roadshow from the helipad to the venue of a public meeting in Kalpetta.
At the public meeting, Gandhi said his relationship with the people of Wayanad is not going to change a bit because of the disqualification.
“I am saying my relationship with you is not going to change for the entire lifetime. Let them put me in jail or do whatever they want to,” he said.
Gandhi said he will continue to represent the people of Wayanad on issues like night traffic, medical college and buffer zone. “It doesn’t matter if I am an MP or not. I will make sure these things happen here,” he said at the jam-packed meeting.
He accused the BJP of dividing the people. “You divide people. You threaten people and you make people fight each other. You can abuse as much as you want, but I will keep uniting them. I will keep respecting every single community, every religion and every single idea. You can be as nasty as you want, be as evil as you want, I will continue to be as kind as I can even to you,” he said.
Mr Gandhi said the fight is between two visions of India. “You represent one vision of India and we represent another vision of India. We are not scared of your intimidation, aggression and your nastiness. In fact, we find it quite amusing,” he said.
The Congress leader said he had only asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi some questions regarding his relationship with businessman Gautam Adani.
“I just asked the PM to explain his relationship with the businessman. Adani, who was 609 among the world’s wealthiest persons, climbed up to the No. 2 position. How did the Prime Minister facilitate his growth? But the PM has not replied to these questions till date,” he said.
He said his questions regarding transformation of defence relationship with Israel to favour Adani, change of rules to help Adani take over airports and change in foreign policy to help the businessman, have not been replied to by the ruling party.
“So how do I know that what I am doing is correct? If the BJP is taking my house, disqualifying me from Parliament and attacking me personally 24x7, I know I am doing the right thing. The more the BJP attacks me, the more I know this is exactly the path on which I have to walk. I am not going to stop no matter what happens,” he said.
Earlier addressing the public meeting, Vadra said the BJP says that Congress is raising the issue of one individual in the name of fighting for democracy. “You the people of Wayanad have understood that this is not the issue of one man or one individual. This is the issue about the kind of country that we want for our children. It is about building a strong and brave country for our children. It is about building a country in which everybody is free to express dissent, to ask for accountability and a true democracy is established again”.
