Bengaluru: Heaping praise on the chief ministers of Congress ruled Punjab and Karnataka, AICC vice president, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday declared that his party was the protector of the rights of farmers.

Speaking at the KPCC organised Sarthak Samvesha here, Mr Gandhi said the Congress will exert so much pressure on the BJP that it will be forced to change its policies. “Mr Siddaramaiah and Captain Amrinder Singh (Punjab CM) supported the farmers of their respective states, within 48 hours of meeting me some time ago, where is the BJP support for farmers of this state?,” he wondered.

Training his guns on Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Congress scion recalled that Mr Modi’s speech on Independence Day last year was the longest by an Indian PM. “This year, it was a very short speech of only 45 minutes, next year, it will be 15 minutes because he's running out of things to say,” he ridiculed.

According to Rahul, when Mr Modi came to power, he had propagated the concept of Swachch Bharat, whereas the Congress believes in ‘Sach Bharat.’ “The truth lies in taking care of the poor, don’t ever try to divide them, once we start dividing people, this country will collapse. Mr Modi has no idea about this concept about the truth of India,” he criticised. Further ridiculing the PM, Mr Gandhi stated that on Independence Day, he had spoken about a whole range of issues but he(Rahul) would like to focus on what the PM did not reveal.

“The greatest strength of this country are the youth. Yesterday at the Red Fort, the PM did not mention that India has a high unemployment rate. He did not tell you that in the last year, less than 1 lakh jobs were created by him. He did not tell you that Mr Siddaramaiah has added 30,000 jobs here alone. He did not say that he had promised each youth that he would add two crore jobs every year,” the Congress vice president explained.

In Modi’s India, the rich go to private hospitals while the poor just die: Cong VP

Attacking the BJP on the Gorakhpur hospital deaths, AICC vice president, Rahul Gandhi charged that PM Modi wants to build an India where the rich go to private hospitals and the poor just die.

PM did not mention in his speech that more than 90 little babies had died in Gorakhpur because of his health policies. “He did not say that because his government had cut the health budget, the hospital couldn't buy oxygen. He did not tell you that whenever a poor person walks into a hospital for heart or cancer surgery, no money is provided by the government of India. He did not tell you that his policies have ensured that medical facilities are simply not available to the poor,” he contended.

“I have seen the facilities in the Gorakhpur hospital. Some years ago, I personally went there and asked the PM to support the hospitals there. Not one of those children come from a rich family. Mr Modi wants to build an India where the rich go to private hospitals and the poor just die,” he slammed.