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Journalism of Courage
After his overnight halt at Dondiacha in Nandurbar district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi began his roadshow right up to Dhule city around 9 am on Wednesday. On the way, he paid respects at Kranti Smarak. Leading the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra into Maharashtra, Rahul arrived in Nandurbar on Tuesday, welcomed by a large gathering of the tribal community of the region. Rahul promised to restore their “original malik” status on “jal-jameen-jungle” after coming to power.
As his cavalcade entered Dhule city on Wednesday, hundreds of people and Congress leaders had lined up both sides of the busy road. At the entry point was Mahatma Gandhi’s statue. As youths surged forward to garland him, Rahul acknowledged the loud cheers and slogans like “Desh ka neta kaise ho, Rahul Gandhi jaise ho…” An enthusiastic youth even tried to jump into Rahul’s speeding vehicle, but the accompanying security personnel prevented him from doing so.
Surrounded on all sides by a cheering mob, mostly consisting of cellphone-savvy youths who tried to capture every word he spoke, Rahul interacted with the youths rather than delivering solo speeches. “When you people make reels and put it on social media, do you know in whose pocket the money goes?” he asked.
The crowd responded with an emphatic “yes”, but Rahul answered the question himself too. “It goes into the pockets of 22-25 multi-millionaires,” he said.
The Congress MP sprang a surprise when he asked a youth to climb onto his vehicle. Rahul then explained to him how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to divert people’s attention to his various events, targeting the Opposition through the Enforcement Directorate and helping a select few capitalists make money.
Accusing the Modi government of trying to divert pension amount in the name of Agnipath scheme, Rahul said Agniveers will not get martyr’s status or pension as the Centre wants to divert the pension amount and the money spent on training soldiers to defence business of companies owned by favoured capitalists.
Most of his speech in Dhule city was an encore of his speech delivered at Nandurbar rally. Rahul spoke about the Rs 16 lakh crore loan waiver to capitalists by the Modi government. “If the Modi government can waive off Rs 16 lakh crore loan of capitalists, then we will waive off the loans of the poor when we come to power,” he said.
He then addressed a women’s rally in Dhule, where he explained in detail the five guarantees of the INDIA bloc when it comes to power. At the rally, he began on the same note, attacking the Modi government for favouring capitalists while ignoring farmers, workers and labourers.
In the Malegaon roadshow where the crowd was much bigger than Dhule, Rahul launched an attack on the RSS, stating that the BJP and RSS together were trying to divide the people of the country on communal lines. In Nandurbar and Dhule, he avoided mentioning the RSS.
Wishing residents of Malegaon Ramzan Mubarak, Rahul said, “RSS and fanatics are trying to pit one community against another. RSS is fueling communal fire among brothers and in states. But this is not shown on television channels. Only Modi is seen on television channels.”
