JOIN USCongress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that a senior opposition leader who had opposed Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of computerisation in Parliament is “now claiming credit for ushering in computer and telecom revolutions”.
Charging the BJP for trying to take credit for prosperity and development ushered in by the Congress and its stalwart leaders, Rahul said: “I want to remind you that when Congress young leaders Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda first put forth the need for computer revolution, the opposition – their senior most leader- opposed it.”
“I don’t want to name him but he said in Parliament ‘India doesn’t need computerisation. It will rob people of jobs.’ Then later when computerisation changed the face of the country, the same leader said it was he who sparked off computer and telecom revolutions.”
Speaking at a party rally held in the communally sensitive powerloom town of Bhiwandi in Thane district, Rahul said: “They killed Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS killed Gandhi. Today, they appropriate Gandhi and Sardar Patel. They were Congress leaders. Sardar Patel wrote clearly about the RSS. They opposed Gandhi and Sardar Patel then. And 15-20 years later, they are appropriating the Congress thought and leaders.” Rahul on the last leg of his two-day tour of Maharashtra said the essential difference between the BJP and the Congress was that the latter believed in taking along the rich and the poor irrespective of religious faith and ensure that the fruits of economic development reached everyone.
“If we talk about MNREGA or RTI then can it be spoken of as a right to livelihood or an empowering that is confined to one community or one religion? We believe it should be for all. Wherever opposition goes, they only indulge in creating rift between Hindus and Muslims,” he said.