Asserting that people of the country want change and are fed up with being "lied" to, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on May 8 said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been "using his imagination a lot" in his speeches and not speaking on the basis of facts.
Her remarks came a day after Prime Minister Modi claimed the Congress will reverse the Supreme Court verdict on the Ram temple if voted to power just like its landmark 1985 ruling in the Shah Bano case was overturned by the Rajiv Gandhi government as part of the party's appeasement politics.
In an exclusive interview with PTI while on the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli from where her brother Rahul Gandhi is contesting the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress general secretary challenged Mr. Modi to speak on issues of unemployment, inflation rise and farmers' plight.
Asked about her assessment of the ground situation after three rounds of the seven-phase polls, Ms. Gandhi said, "My assessment is that people want change. Everywhere I go I get the sense that people are fed up now of being lied to, they are fed up with the level of discussion that is taking place in the media and on political stages."
"They want their problems to be discussed, they want solutions, they want to know what has the government done for unemployment, what has it done to reduce prices which are so high, what is it doing to actually help the farmer, help the labourer, help the people with their problems," she said.
Ms. Gandhi also said she gets the impression that winds of change are blowing in the country. She said the ruling party’s estimates are going down when questioned about the BJP’s claim of ‘400 paar’ for the NDA and 370 for the BJP. She said their claims will go down further as the election season continues.
Raise the issue of unemployment: Priyanka to Modi
Asked about the issues raised by the BJP and Prime Minister Modi such as the claim that the Congress will redistribute wealth if it comes to power, Ms. Gandhi said, "I challenge the prime minister to raise the issue of unemployment which is the worst it has been in 45 years. I challenge the prime minister to tell us which institutions the BJP has built, I challenge the prime minister to name one scheme that he has actually started himself and is not a scheme that was started by the Congress but he has renamed."
"I challenge the prime minister to tell us how he is going to reduce prices. I challenge the PM to tell us how he is going to reduce the difficulties farmers are facing and how he is going to help them," she said.
On the Congress' claim that the BJP wants to change the Constitution, she said there are certain people who are fighting the election on behalf of the BJP, specifically the candidate in Meerut and some ministers, who have all stated in public that if the people give the BJP more than 400 seats, they will change the Constitution.
"So, the Congress has taken this up extremely strongly because it is the Constitution that gives the right to vote, it is the Constitution that gives the right to reservation. It is the Constitution that upholds democracy in this country," she said.
"We have taken it up extremely strongly, all of us talk about it. We are not going to allow the BJP to change the Constitution and to weaken the rights of the people," she said.
Asked about the prime minister's claim that the Congress would take away reservation to benefit minorities and that the party would reverse the Supreme Court verdict on the Ram temple if voted to power, Priyanka Gandhi hit out at Modi and said he was "using his imagination a lot" in his speeches.
"In the last week or 10 days, I have been noticing that he [Modi] is using his imagination a lot in his speeches. He is not speaking on facts. He does not have the respect for the people of this country to speak based on facts, based on the truth," she said.
"He is saying all sorts of things from we are going to steal people's buffaloes, to us having X-ray machines and going to people's houses and finding their jewels and taking it away. Frankly, if it wasn't the PM saying this, coming from such a dignified, serious post, we would laugh," she said.
She added, "Unfortunately, we cannot laugh because it is the PM who is in all seriousness trying to convince the public that these things are true when they are absolutely not".
On protecting the nation's wealth
In several nukkad sabhas that the Congress leader addressed on May 8, she warned people that the BJP intends to change the Constitution and was working for the benefit of a few crony capitalists.
She also underlined that it was the Congress that always protected people's and nation's wealth and alleged that it was the BJP that was handing over the country's assets to crony capitalists. She urged people to vote after after thinking about their children's future.
Ms. Gandhi also explained the ‘Paanch Nyay, Pachchis Guarantees’ of the Congress and cited the example of Karnataka and Telangana to stress how the common people were benefitting from the Congress’ pro-poor guarantees.
