Kozhikode: Rahul Gandhi said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was reluctant to speak against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during election campaigns in the state.
Addressing a massive public meeting on the Kozhikode Beach Monday evening, Gandhi accused Vijayan of targetting him 24/7.
The Congress leader, who is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Wayanaad, said the electoral bonds issue was the biggest extortion racket on the planet, conceptualised by the Prime Minister of India.
“I attack the BJP and the RSS relentlessly. They are after me 24/7. I was interrogated for 55 hours by the Enforcement Directorate. After I gave a speech in the Parliament, the BJP government removed me from there (Parliament); they took away my house,” Gandhi said.
“Now I have given a speech for about 40 minutes, and I have not wavered from attacking BJP or RSS. Because it's an ideological battle for me. I know, that whenever someone attacks BJP, they attack them back with ED, and CBI, they take away their house, they remove them from the parliament.
"My question is why the BJP is not attacking the Chief Minister of Kerala. Why are they not taking away his house, taking away his chief ministership, putting cases against him or getting him interrogated by the ED? After all two Chief Ministers are jailed by the BJP.
“My second question is when the BJP is destroying the constitution, attacking democracy, destroying the institutions, dividing India, why is the CM of Kerala attacking me 24/7? I am very happy for him attacking me, but he should also spend a little bit of time against the BJP, Mr Modi and the RSS.”
The election campaign on Kozhikode Beach turned out to be a massive gathering. UDF candidates from the constituencies of Vadakara, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Ponnani were present.
Electoral bond: The biggest extortion plan by the PM
Gandhi said the electoral bonds were a way to steal from the people of India. “It is interesting that the PM and the government did everything possible to stop the names of the companies that donated money and the dates on which they donated from coming out. Let me start with Megha Engineering. It donated Rs 150 crores to the BJP in April 2023, and in May they were granted Rs. 14,400 crores Thane-Borivali twin tunnel project. In September 2023, they won a 648 million dollar petroleum refinery project in Mongolia. One month after that they donated another Rs 150 crores to the BJP. Between December 2021 and March 2023, they won 26 NH projects worth 20,889 crores and at the same time, they were donating Rs 426 crores to the BJP.
“There was a raid on a famous laboratory company on November 12, 2023, just after 5 days they donated money to the BJP. Torrent Pharma donated Rs 9 crores to the BJP on 7th May 2019 and 20 days later they received a 285 crores tax exemption from the Government of Maharashtra. In January 2024 they gave 50 crores to BJP, and the company granted a contract for a solar project of Rs 1,540 crores in Maharashtra in the month of March.
“Airtel Company donated Rs 51 Crores to the BJP between 2019 to 2021. In August 2021 they got a global mobile personal communication satellite license. The entire operation of the BJP is to take the wealth of the country and hand it over to 20 or 25 corporates.”
On Citizenship
Gandhi alleged that the Prime Minister's motto was One Nation, One Leader and One Language. He said the Congress party stands to protect the diversity of the country. India is like a bouquet of different flowers with different languages, cultures and religions; diversity is the strength of the country, he said.
“It is the UDF's duty to protect every single voice of the country regardless of what language it is, religion, caste, age or gender. We will never decide citizenship on the basis of their language, religion or caste. We will decide citizenship based on the idea of India.”
