Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi presented a model of plough during the Indian Youth Congress’ “Sansad Gherao” protest over alleged rise in inflation, unemployment, three agricultural laws and the Pegasus snooping issue, here on Thursday.
Just as Opposition members holding placards in Lok Sabha are not shown by Lok Sabha TV to hide the reality, Prime Minister Narendra Modi does the same by suppressing the reality, Rahul Gandhi said.
He made these remarks on Thursday at the “Sansad Gherao”, a programme of the Indian Youth Congress to protest against “growing unemployment, price rise, farm laws and the Pegasus snooping controversy”. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress general secretary (organization) K.C. Venugopal were among those who attended it. Rahul Gandhi accused the government of not allowing the media to talk about issues like “jobs or the ones raised by farmers”. He cited the recent rape and murder of a nine-year-old in Delhi, and claimed it was “blacked” out.
“Their aim is to suppress the voices of the youth in colleges and universities… Their aim is to suppress the voice of India because they know the day the youth start speaking the reality, Narendra Modi government’s won’t last,” he said. The Pegasus spyware was linked to the government’s move to suppress the voices of people. “Someone asked my why the Congress is unrelenting over a small issue like Pegasus. It’s a not small issue as Narendra Modi has put this Pegasus not just in my phone but all of you… It’s one way to suppress the voices of people,” Gandhi said.
The Prime Minister had promised two crore jobs every year before elections, but in reality he had benefitted only a “handful of his industrialist friends”, Rahul Gandhi alleged. Jobs in the unorganised sector, retail trade and small and medium enterprises were destroyed by moves such as demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST). “Unemployment is the biggest issue this country is facing today… PM will talk about everything but not unemployment. Narendra Modi is not in partnership with youth, farmer, labourers or small traders… but in partnership with two-three businessmen,” Rahul Gandhi added.