Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, City Mayor Padmavathi and Karnataka Congress Incharge Venugopal eatin... Read More

BENGALURU: Rahul Gandhi referred to the Karnataka Congress government 's move to provide subsidized food to people as “Amma canteen“ before realising his gaffe and correcting it at the inauguration of the scheme here on Wednesday.

Modelled on the lines of late Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa's Amma canteens , the Indira canteens will serve breakfast at Rs 5 and lunch and dinner at Rs 10 each. Saying no one would go hungry in Bengaluru, Rahul said, “That's the vision of the Amma... Indira canteen,“ quickly correcting himself.

The Rs 88 crore project envisages canteens in each of the 198 wards of Bengaluru. While 101 canteens were inaugurated on Wednesday, the remaining 97 will open on October 2.

Towards the end of his speech too, Rahul said eradicating poverty and feeding the hungry was the “vision of Amma“ and then corrected it to Indira. A combative Siddaramaiah later said, “Some say we have copied Tamil Nadu's Amma canteen project. What is wrong in copying programmes for the poor?

TN canteens only give breakfast and lunch. Our canteens will offer dinner as well.“ Rahul ridiculed PM Narendra Modi for shortening his Independence speech by the year. “Modi is reducing the duration of his speeches by the year, as now he has nothing to talk about,“ he said at the rally. “My mom (Sonia) had attended the Independence Day parade and I asked her, how was Modi's speech. She said, it was shorter than last year,“ Rahul added.

Last August 15, Rahul said, Modi had made the longest Independence Day speech ever by any PM taking 97 minutes. But this year, he limited his speech to just 57 minutes, his shortest in four years. “Next year, I am sure it will come down to 45 minutes and subsequent year to 15 minutes,“ he added. Incidentally, this year's was Modi's fourth I-Day speech. Rahul also claimed that the unemployment rate in the country is the highest in eight years.“Modi promised two crore jobs yearly when he took as CM. But the rate of unemployment today is highest in eight years. The BJP doesn't care about poor, farmers and dalits like Congresss does,“ he said. Rahul also scoffed at Modi through a live demonstration on how he had hugged Chinese president. While saying this he hugged former Karnataka legislative council chairman B L Shankar, who was translating his English speech to Kannada even as the crowd burst into laughter.



In Video: Bengaluru: Rahul Gandhi launches Indira Canteen; food available at Rs 5, Rs 10