Gannaur (Haryana): Rahul Gandhi today charged the BJP with playing divisive politics by dividing people as "insiders and outsiders" and asserted that in contrast no Indian is an outsider for the Congress.
Interacting with farmers to gather inputs for Congress' Lok Sabha poll manifesto in this village in Sonepat district, about 70 km from Delhi, Gandhi targeted BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, alleging they brand migrants from other states as "outsiders" as part of their divisive politics.
Rahul Gandhi. PTI
The Congress Vice President also said the BJP believes in vesting power in one person to run the country while Congress was for giving power to the people.
"BJP believes in concentrating power. They think one or two people can run the country...they think the entire knowledge rests with only one person who can do every thing. We in Congress believe in giving power to the people," Gandhi said in an apparent dig at Modi.
Raking up the migrants issue, especially of Sikh farmers in Kutch, Gandhi said Congress and BJP think differently.
"For us, everyone is an insider. Even an Indian living in the US is an insider. For them, a 'UP wallah' in Maharashtra is an outsider, a Sikh in Gujarat is an outsider, someone from Haryana in Punjab is an outsider," he said.
"In India you go to any place, for us (all citizens) you are an insider... Wherever they go, they make somebody an insider and someone else an outsider, this is their politics, this is the difference between them and us," he added.
He was referring to the decision of the administration in Gujarat to freeze land rights of Sikh farmers in Kutch region.
Gandhi said that a delegation of Sikh farmers from Gujarat had met the party. "They were crying and they asked us that are we Indians or are we outsiders. We came from Pakistan, prepared the land and today we are told you are an outsider," he said.
However, Modi had while addressing a rally in Punjab's Jagraon yesterday sought to assure the Sikh farmers settled in the Kutch region that none of them would have to leave their farms and claimed that a "misinformation campaign" was being spread that the BJP government was trying to evict the Sikh farmers who had been tilling the land for decades.
Gandhi also slammed BJP for taking credit for achievements made by Congress over the years.
He said his father late Rajiv Gandhi was sarcastically dubbed "computer boy" for his push for computerisation.
"Top leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani made fun, questioning how computers will help India. Then 15 years after he (Rajiv Gandhi) left (assassinated), Vajpayee and Pramod Mahajan said they had always talked about computerisation," he said.
He further said, "After few years, they (BJP) will claim credit for Food Security Bill, MNREGA and others... White revolution was done by Congress, BJP in Gujarat says they've done that."
PTI
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