Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of acche din (good days), Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the country will see good days when his party “returns to power in 2019”. Addressing the gathering at the Jan Vedna Sammelan in Delhi, Gandhi accused Modi of “breaking the economy’s backbone with the ruse of demonetisation”.
Gandhi has been vocal in his criticism of Modi’s demonetisation drive, which was launched on November 8 to fight corruption and black money. He claimed the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government had destroyed the country’s major institutions, including the judiciary, Reserve Bank of India and the press. Gandhi said the 60% decline in car sales was an indicator that the nation had gone back to where it was 16 years ago.
Gandhi said Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had sidelined the people to rule the country, ANI reported. The Congress leader said Modi needed to spend some time with villagers and farmers to find out why there had been a sudden surge in applications for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and people returning to villages.
The BJP was quick to hit back. “Rahul Gandhi is a part-time politician who has just arrived from a vacation. If he really cared about the people, he would not have gone on vacation,” the ruling party said.
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