During campaign tour in Madhya Pradesh, Congress president targets Prime Minister on Unnao case.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on October 15 said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about women’s safety but actually “protected” a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh accused of rape and murder.

Starting his two-day tour of poll-bound Madhya Pradesh with a visit to the famous Pitambara Peeth at Datia, Mr. Gandhi addressed a public meeting and did a roadshow in Gwalior later in the evening.

He once again described the Modi government as a suit boot ki sarkar (government of the well heeled) to allege that the poor had no place in it and raised the controversial Rafale deal.

Not a word

Stating that Mr. Modi’s slogan of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao had a feel-good element, Mr. Gandhi said, “But when a BJP MLA [Kuldeep Singh Sengar] raped a girl in Unnao, the U.P. Chief Minister and the Prime Minister tried to save him. Neither was he expelled from the party nor did the PM speak a word about him.”

“The actual slogan should be Beti Padhao aur Beti ko BJP ke MLA se Bachao (educate daughter and save her from BJP MLA),” he said, addressing a public meeting here.

The Congress chief’s attack on the Modi government comes in the middle of the ongoing #MeToo campaign in which Union Minister M.J. Akbar has been accused of sexual harassment by women journalists.

“He [Modi] has place only for industrialists in his heart, not for women, Dalits and farmers. He stays quiet if anything happens to them,” he said.

He told the audience that before the 2014 polls, the Prime Minister wanted to be a chowkidar (watchman), but instead of farmers, 15-20 industrialists of the country benefited under his government. “Prime Minister addresses Mehul Choksi as Mehul bhai (brother), Nirav Modi as Nirav bhai and Anil Ambani as Anil bhai but he never addresses a labourer, a poor man or a farmer as bhai or hugs them.…If you are not in suit-boot, you are not PM’s bhai,” he said.

The Congress chief reiterated the promise he made at Mandsaur of waiving off farm loans within 10 days of the Congress coming to power in the State.