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Updated: Apr 28, 2020 00:44 IST

Stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the PM has insulted his political guru LK Advani.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the PM doesn’t even greet or acknowledge Advani, one of the BJP’s founding members, at public meetings. Gandhi said as per the Hindu tradition, a guru is considered supreme, deserves utmost respect and honour but Modi has insulted Advani time and again.

Addressing an election rally at Chandrapur, some 150 kms from here on Friday, where the Congress has fielded former Shiv Sena MLA Suresh Dhanorkar and Gadchiroli Congress nominee Dr Namdeorao Usendi, Rahul accused Modi of making a false promise to the people of the nation of depositing Rs 15 lakh in individual accounts from the supposed black money stashed abroad.

On the contrary, Gandhi said, the PM has ensured that a “select few” get multiple times more money into their accounts. He said Modi was just a custodian of the rich whom his government extended huge loans and ensured their safe passage to go abroad after defaulting on these loans. “They gave money to just 15 people. Farmer pay crop insurance money which is discreetly diverted to these select individuals and industrialists,” he alleged.

The Congress chief’s swipe at PM Modi over the treatment meted out to Advani follows the BJP veteran’s blog published Thursday where he said the BJP never considered its political adversaries as anti-national.

“BJP talks of Hinduism. In Hinduism, guru is supreme. It talks about the gurushishya parampara. Who is Modi’s guru? Advani. Modi unhe joote marke stage se utara (just kicked him out),” Gandhi said. The remark was a veiled reference to Advani not getting Lok Sabha poll ticket from Gandhinagar, from where BJP has fielded party president Amit Shah instead. This election is a battle of ideologies and the Congress ideology of brotherhood, love and harmony will win against Modi’s hate, anger and divisive ideology, he said.

While raising the issue of demonetisation, GST, employment and farmers, he said that the BJP did nothing for the farmers and unemployed youths of the country. Gandhi mocked at the Modi government’s claims of creating crores of jobs. “The economy is flat, people are not getting jobs, the farmers aren’t getting loans and the educated have no opportunities,” he pointed out.

Gandhi claimed it is not that financial provisions cannot be made to address the above concerns. “To run ‘MNREGA’, the government needs Rs 35,000-crore per year. This means crores of people can be given employment using this money. But this Rs 35,000-crore was clandestinely siphoned off by fugitives, like Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and the other select few. If the Congress comes to power, then the money which is going to these 15-20 people will be put directly into your bank account,” he said.

Ridiculing Modi’s self-proclaimed ‘chowkidar’ tag, he again cocked a snook at the PM saying “he is only standing guard outside the house of the rich. I told you that I do not want to be the Prime Minister’s watchman. Have you have ever seen a watchman guarding a poor person’s house? On the day of the Pulwama terror attack, six airports were given to Adani for development,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi again reiterated the Congress’s promise of transferring Rs 72,000 annually to the poorest 20 percent of the families if his party comes to power.

He said the Congress will set up food processing factories in different places in the region where the farmers will be able to send their produce directly and will also provide storage facility so that the farmers get more benefits.

The Congress party is committed to giving farmers the true value of their crop.

Lashing out at the BJP-led government in the Centre and the state, the Congress chief alleged that the state sponsored loans waiver did not reach a single beneficiary.

The Congress president also addressed another rally at Swavalambi Vidyalaya ground in Wardha where PM Modi launched his election campaign from Maharashtra on Monday.