Opposition ashamed of talking about poor people: Rahul Gandhi

Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi while addressing an election rally in Hingoli (Maharashtra) once again reiterated that over the last sixty years two Indias have formed. One of the rich and other of the poor. “One India belongs to the poor, Dalits and farmers living in villages, while the other India belongs to rich people living in cities. And this election is being fought between two different ideologies; one which talks about the poor and one which talks of the rich,” he said.

Talking about his visits to villages he said, “When I go to villages and stay at poor people’s houses, our opposition wonders why Rahul Gandhi is going to poor people’s house? They feel ashamed of it. Once a minister from England came to meet me in Delhi. He asked me where India's strength lay. I said, if you want to understand the strength of India, you have to step out of Delhi, you have to go to villages and talk to poor people, farmers and women. I took him to a village in UP where he spoke to villagers, ate with them and spent a night there. One his way back to Delhi, he told me that he understood why India is making so much progress. But the next day I read in newspapers , senior BJP leaders criticizing me asking why I am exposing the poverty of India to a foreigner. Basically, our opposition leaders are ashamed of the conditions under which poor people live and they don’t want to even talk about it.”
Rahul Gandhi further said, “I think that poor peoples are the real strength of India and if this country is progressing it is due to the hard labour done by the poor. We have to ensure that they get their due share in the development process.”

Talking about the work done by UPA in the last five years, Congress General Secretary said, “In last five years our government launched the biggest ever Employment Guarantee Scheme in the world, ensuring 100-days employment for the rural poor. We did it, but during a debate in Parliament, our opposition said that we were wasting money. Again, we waived farmer loans worth Rs 60,000 crores. In the Parliament I especially spoke about farmers from Maharashtra and Vidarbha because they have specific problems; land holdings are big here; so there must be different solutions for them. However, at that time too, BJP and Shiv Sena asked where the money was coming from? So, money meant for poor people is a problem for them, but it is not a big problem if it is going to big people.”

Congress General Secretary said, “I have come here to tell you that whatever resource this country generates in the development process, it will be used to educate your children and to provide health facilities for you. I do not care what the opposition says, we have done it in the last five years, we will do it in the next five years and so on. This process will continue till there is a single poor person left in this country".
Rahul Gandhi concluded his speech by appealing to all to vote for Congress and re-elect the government of aam aadmi.