Rahul slams Modi's foreign tours soon after he flies to Russia

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a two-day Russia visit, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today took a dig at his foreign tours, saying such trips would not benefit the country and sharpened his attack on the NDA government over price rise.

"The PM is travelling abroad regularly, but people in those countries are very clever. These tours will not benefit India," Rahul said during a meeting with Nyaya Panchayat chairpersons here.

He said Modi interacts with industrialists and these meetings had nothing to do with the common people.

Rahul also addressed a few roadside meetings in his Lok Sabha constituency during which he intensified his attack on the Modi government over price rise, saying 'achhe din' has come only for the Prime Minister and not the common man.

"The aam aadmi is groaning under unprecedented price rise. It is no achhe din (good times) for them. It is achhe din only for the Prime Minister," he said on the first day of his two-day visit to Amethi.

Rahul, who led the opposition attack against the NDA government within and outside Parliament, said only his party was fighting strongly against BJP on the price front.

"BJP is responsible for the unprecedented price rise in the country," he said, adding, "inflation is at its peak. Nothing has been done for farmers and the youth".

He alleged that wherever Modi went for election campaign, he tried to create Hindu-Muslim divide for the sake of votes.

After Bihar assembly elections, he forgot as if no such state existed in the country.

Addressing a few roadside meetings, including at Nigoha and Chatoh, he asked village heads to raise their voice against cancellation of food park and paper mill projects in Amethi and said Congress wanted all welfare schemes of the Centre and the state to be implemented through gram pradhans.