Gandhi tears into Modi, Mamata ‘false promises’

Launching a blistering attack against chief minister Mamata Banerjee over several corruption charges, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday promised that the Left-Congress secular democratic government would initiate an investigation into the Vivekananda flyover collapse once elected to power. At the same time, Mr Gandhi criticised the Centre’s “Make In India” campaign and asserted that they would launch a “Make In Bengal” campaign which would set up an example for the rest of the country. The Congress vice-president was speaking at an election rally at Park Circus ground. Earlier in the day, Mr Gandhi came down heavily upon both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ms Banerjee for making “false promises” to the people and not taking any action against corruption.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerje said that she would fight corruption. But from Saradha to Narada, Ms Banerjee has not taken a single step against her ministers who were seen accepting bribes before the camera. When people like Mousumi Kayal and Tumpa Kayal want to fight against rising crimes on women, Ms Banerjee said those were ‘sajano ghotona (fabricated incidents)’. But under the TMC rule there is only ‘sajano vikash (make-believe development)’ in Bengal,” Mr Gandhi said.

The Congress vice-president also sympathised with the people and Left workers of Bengal and said they have “endured” a lot under the TMC rule. “Recently a flyover collapsed in Kolkata. It takes only 6 months to build a flyover, but the Mamata government takes 5 years to build one. Contractors close to TMC MPs and MLAs get the job and use poor materials to build the flyover. When the flyover collapsed, no TMC worker was killed or injured. Only poor and innocents were killed and suffered. After the incident, Ms Banerjee said she would take action now, but remained silent for five years. Let me tell you the Left and Congress secular democratic government will initiate a probe into it once it comes to power,” Mr Gandhi said. He added that they would build the flyover in 6 months.

Shifting his focus to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, he said the real development in the country would begin from Bengal. “We will show how industries are set up and how jobs are created. We will create Make In Bengal, which will set up an example for the rest of the country as no one benefited from the Centre’s Make In India,” he said.

Expressing confidence that the Left-Congress combine was coming to power in Bengal, Mr Gandhi said, “Haturi hath me aa gaya (hammer has come to the hand). Now the TMC will be ousted. The Congress-Left alliance will bring back the glory of Bengal.”

Earlier in the day, the Congress vice-president, while addressing an election rally in Budge Budge, said, “Just like Mamataji, Modiji also promised that he will fight corruption and take action against blackmoney. Modiji became the Prime Minister, but what happened His government has brought ‘fair and lovely scheme’ in which any thief or terrorist can make his blackmoney white by paying a little bit of tax. The Prime Minister is talking about fighting corruption, but how did Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya flee the country There was corruption in Gujarat involving thousands of crore of rupees and we will expose it in Parliament”. The Congress vice-president further slammed both Ms Banerjee and Mr Modi for making “false promises”.