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Updated: Dec 01, 2018 15:23 IST

In a series of statements made Saturday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on multiple issues ranging from Hinduism, women empowerment and demonetisation to surgical strikes.

He questioned the PM on his Hindu quotient saying that Modi did not understand the foundation of Hinduism.

“What is the essence of Hinduism? What does the Gita say? That knowledge is with everybody, knowledge is all around you. Every living being has knowledge. Our PM says he is a Hindu but he doesn’t understand foundation of Hinduism. What kind of a Hindu is he?” Rahul Gandhi said.

Addressing a public interaction with members of business community and professionals in Udaipur, Rahul said that the PM believes that he knows best about everything and that the world’s knowledge comes from his brain only.

He said this while speaking about the surgical strikes and how the BJP government had turned a military asset into a political asset to benefit itself during the Uttar Pradesh elections.

He said that the BJP government wasn’t the only one which had permitted the surgical strikes and that surgical strikes had been carried out during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as prime minister but had been kept secret at the army’s behest.

“Do you know that like Narendra Modi’s surgical strike, Manmohan Singhji did that 3 times? When Army came to Manmohan Singh and said we need to retaliate against Pakistan for what they’ve done they also said we want it to be secret, for our own purposes,” Gandhi said.

Rahul went on to explain why the BJP government had revealed details of the surgical strikes.

“But Narendra Modi actually reached into Army’s domain and shaped their surgical strike, he turned their surgical strike into a political asset when it actually was a military decision,” Rahul said.

“What the Army would have liked was we’ll do it, it’s beneficial if nobody knows we did it. But Modi didn’t want that. He was fighting an election in UP and he was losing it. So he did it to turn a military asset into a political asset,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“PM is convinced he knows better than Army what needs to be done in Army’s area, better than foreign minister what needs to be done in the foreign ministry, better than agriculture minister what needs to be done in agriculture because he has a sense that all knowledge comes from his brain,” Rahul Gandhi said.

He said that the Army knows what to do best in its domain, politicians know what to do best in their domain. “The two shouldn’t mix,” he said.

Rahul went on to compare Manmohan Singh’s style of functioning with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that when the 26/11 Mumbai attacks had taken place, Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. Upon receiving the information regarding the attack, Manmohan Singh had made two phone calls.

“The second phone call that went from Manmohan Singh’s office was to LK Advani, who was leading the opposition at that time. As leader of opposition, he had to know and it was Manmohan Singh’s duty to inform him. But prime minister modi has never called me. He has never called Soniaji, not even Advaniji,” Rahul said.

Rahul went on to speak about demonetisation. He said that demonetisation had ruined the country’s economy and that the country had gained nothing out of it. “Demonetisation was a medium to break India’s spine. It was only to give a chance to some industrialists to benefit from the economy,” he said.

Rahul went on to explain how the PM had carried out the demonetisation. “The SPG protects me and it also protects the PM. [They told me] that the PM had locked up his cabinet before announcing the demonetisation. The Cabinet didn’t know anything about it, Arun Jaitley didn’t know anything, neither did Subramanian. Demonetisation destroyed a major economy and ruined many people,” Rahul said.

Rahul Gandhi referred to the BJP’s 2014 poll promise of creating jobs for everyone and said that the Modi government had “failed solidly” in doing that.

“Creation of jobs for youngsters is the biggest challenge that the country faces today and the PM has failed solidly in doing so. China, our biggest competitor, is producing 50,000 jobs every 24 hours. Joblessness in India is the most serious threat. If Congress comes to power, employment generation for youth will be our priority,” said Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi went on talk about other issues such as women empowerment and Ayushman Bharat as well as educational facilities in India.

“The problem with Ayushman Bharat is that the government has provided people with health insurance, there are no public sector hospitals to avail those facilities. The govt does not allocate enough funds to public sector care centre, and public sector educational institutions. Our motive behind IITs, AIIMs, was service and not profit making, unlike those that came up in 2018. We can’t call ourselves a superpower unless we provide low cost health and educational facilities,” he said.

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“It’s a myth that private sector educational institutes are better. We are clear on the view that we can’t run the country without government institutes for education and healthcare,” he said.

Rahul took up the topic of women’s safety and women empowerment and said that the Centre wasn’t doing enough to empower women.

“Without empowering women in India, we are wasting our time. Women have certain unique attributes that men do not have, and vice versa. They are more caring in nature, and it is essential that women be seen in power, in the Parliament. They should be heading schools, colleges and all kinds of institutions. We look up to Rani of Jhansi, she was a liberated woman, stood for the country. We respect her, call her great, but tell the women in the society to not be like her. That’s the problem at the centre,” he said.

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