Trust in Modi govt dead, says Rahul

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched an all-out attack on the BJP government for unleashing a “tsunami of tax terror” through the GST.

He also hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for concentrating power in his office, saying people’s trust in the government was dead. 

Addressing the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Rahul also assured that if elected to power, the new Congress government would be more decentralised in distributing power.

Using security terminology, the Congress vice president said, “Modi and his government have fired a double tap at the heart of our economy. The first shot — note ban — bang and then a badly conceptualised and implemented GST — bang. The note ban and GST have crippled the economy.”

Rahul admitted that three years ago, while listening to Modi’s maiden speech in the Lok Sabha, he was curious to know about the prime minister’s vision to take the country forward.

“But as we walked away from there, there was a sense of disappointment... I felt upset that India deserved a solid vision, but didn’t get one,” he said.

Tapping the unease among small businesses after the roll out of the GST, Rahul accused the government of unleashing a tsunami of tax terrorism.

“Business thrives with trust. And the truth is that trust in this government is dead. For some reason, the prime minister and his government are absolutely convinced that every person in India is a thief,” Rahul said.

He said the prime minister had failed to grasp the basic concept of the Indian economy — all cash is not black and all black is not cash.

Modi-Made Disaster
Rahul termed unemployment as a purely man-made disaster. “...or in Modiji’s terminology — MMD — Modi-Made Disaster,” he said, taking a dig at the prime minister’s penchant for acronyms.

Responding to a question, Rahul said a new Congress government, quite unlike the Modi regime, would decentralise power, and make micro, small and medium businesses the central pillar of job
creation.

He rejected a remark from a member of the audience that during the UPA’s tenure, the real power was concentrated at 10, Janpath, the residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.