Priyanka Gandhi hits back at PM; says ‘my mom sacrificed her mangalsutra for nation’

CHITRADURGA: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his controversial remarks that the Congress party will snatch away the mangalsutra of women.

Addressing a public meeting here today, she accused Prime Minister Modi of deliberately trying to divert the public attention from real issues by exploiting their religious sentiments, since he had nothing to show for the ten years for which he could seek votes.

Reacting to the divisive remarks the Prime Minister made in Rajasthan recently, Priyanka Gandhi said, the PM says, the Congress party will take away your jewelry and mangalsutra. She pointed out, that the Congress party was in power for 55 years and asked, “Did anyone take away your jewelry or Mangalsutra”.

Rather, she added, her grandmother Indira Gandhi had donated her jewelry when war broke out with China. She pointed out that her mother’s mangalsutra was sacrificed for the country while referring to the assassination of her father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a suicide bomber.

Gandhi asked the Prime Minister where was he when thousands of women had to mortgage their Mangalsutra during demonetization and the farmers’ wives had to give away their Mangalsutra due to the debt.

She asked why the Prime Minister kept quiet about the Manipur woman who was paraded naked.

Gandhi asserted that the Congress party knows how to protect the Mangalsutra and dignity of the women and that is why it has announced to provide Rs one lakh every year to one woman in every poor family and 50 percent reservation in government jobs for women.

Congress general secretary also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of deliberately trying to divert the public attention from real issues by exploiting their religious sentiments.

“If you worked so hard as you claim to have, then why are you not seeking votes in the name of work, rather than exploiting the sentiments of people and using caste, religion, and public emotions”, Gandhi told the Prime Minister and the BJP during a largely attended public rally here today.

Gandhi said the BJP had wasted ten precious years and had nothing to claim to its credit and that is why they are diverting the attention of the public from the real issues like backbreaking price rise and widespread unemployment and reverting to religious polarisation.

Congress general secretary cautioned people not to get carried away by the big talks beamed on television sets that Modi has become a big international leader and so big that if he wishes he can get any war finished within a fraction of a second.

“When you go to cast your vote”, she told people, “think for yourself as to what difference has it made in your lives. Think of the backbreaking price rise, think of the unemployment, and then vote”.

She alleged that the Prime Minister and his government were working for a select few billionaire friends of the PM who had amassed so much wealth that they were being counted among the richest persons in the world.

Gandhi also warned against the intentions of the BJP to change the constitution, which had provided so many rights and privileges to people. She said, if the constitution is changed, it will hurt everybody’s lives.

She said it was important to save the constitution and democracy in the country as it was in everybody’s interest.

Blasting the claims of honesty and integrity of the Prime Minister, she pointed out how the electoral bond scheme was introduced and how money was laundered. She asked how it was possible that a company that did not earn even Rs 150 crores, made donations worth Rs 1,100 crores to the BJP.

She pointed out how when demonetization was done, people were made to stand up in long queues and told that they were doing it for the country, as it would bring out all black money while the actual black money was generated through electoral bonds.

The Congress leader said whenever the opposition raises the issues, the leaders are harassed and intimidated. She said the Congress party’s bank accounts were frozen while two Chief Ministers were jailed, besides cases slapped on several other opposition leaders.

She said while the farmers were refused any debt relief, a few billionaires were given debt relief worth Rs 16 lakh crores. She promised that the Congress government would not only waive off the debt of farmers but also provide a legal guarantee for the MSP. Besides, she said, a permanent Debt Waiver Commission will also be set up.

To address the issue of unemployment, as it was highest during the last 45 years, the Congress will launch the “pehli naukri pakki” scheme, under which fresh graduates and diploma holders will get guaranteed one-year apprenticeship during which they will get Rs one lakhs.

Besides, she announced that the eldest woman in every poor family will get Rs one lakh every year, social security for gig workers with health insurance cover, an increase in the minimum daily wages to Rs 400, and a law to guarantee urban employment on the pattern of MGNREGA.