'The bigger the speaker, the higher our income'

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s supporters waited and jostled for hours near Jantar Mantar at Delhi’s Sansad Marg to get a close look of the leader who concluded a 2,500-km long padyatra to highlight the plight of farmers on Thursday.

“We have come from UP’s Hathras village to listen to our leader. We are very disappointed with the present government,” said 60-year-old wheat farmer Ishwar Kumar Singh.

“The government only care about ‘seths’ and ‘sahukars’. They have no time for us. They weren’t voted to ignore us,” complained Om Prakash, a farmer from Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

“The UPA government waived-off our debts and helped my ailing family,” said Asha Rani, a resident of Aligarh.

Gandhi was supposed to arrive at the venue at 4.30pm. That, however, did not dampen the mood of the farmers and young Congress volunteers who whole-heartedly heaped slogans of praise on the Congress Vice President and many local leaders present there. Members of Congress affiliates NSUI, Indian National Trade Union Congress and Indian Youth Congress, among others, attended the rally.

Amidst the crowd, however, there was a small section of people, who came simply to supplement their incomes. One such person was Sakal Dev Yadav, who has been selling candy and peanuts in Delhi for the last 12 years. When asked about the rally, he said, “I don’t have time to think about what these political parties and leaders say. I earn around Rs 200-250 a day. I have to pay my rent, take care of my family of five and ensure my children don’t drop out of school. Do these leaders care?”

“These leaders are always late and that makes people restless. In such cases, people are willing to pay handsomely for a good cup of tea,” said 39-year-old tea seller Vinay Kumar.

Papad-seller Raju told Deccan Herald, “We are poor people with no political affiliations. We come to such political rallies and gatherings with the hope of supplementing our income. The bigger the speaker, the higher our income is.” He was quick to add, however, that he earns more during Congress rallies.

The Congress vice president finally reached the venue at 6.20pm. He shared the dais with many senior party members including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, MPs Raj Babbar and Kamal Nath, former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken.

In his 10-minute speech, the Amethi MP accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of playing with the feelings of poor farmers and misleading the youth. “He promised Rs 15 lakh, fair MSPs and jobs. But he hasn’t fulfilled those promises.”

“All the Centre has managed to achieve to make Indians fight each other and divide the nation,” he added.

The Congress vice president also praised the Army and accused the Centre of politicising the issue of surgical strikes. “It’s wrong. The Prime Minister shouldn’t play politics with the lives of those who gave their life to protect the nation,” he said and eventually, concluded his speech.

“Ah! I wish his speech were longer. My stock of tea would’ve been completely exhausted,” said a dejected Vinay Kumar.