Rahul Gandhi at Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh)

Rahul Gandhi in UP: BJP is far below in performance than Congress, but ahead in marketing
“Congress does work for all; but we must admit one thing - in Marketing, BJP is very much ahead of us, though they are far below in performance” said Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi while addressing a mammoth election rally at Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
“The coming general election is a battle between two thoughts – one that of Congress which is based on love, affection, brotherhood and inclusive growth; the other ideology is based on anger, hatred and of pitting one against another” reminded the Congress leader.
In an indirect at BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi lamented, “The opposition believes that one man can run our country. When their leader boasts about Gujarat’s development and takes the entire credit for it, he forgets that it is the people of Gujarat, its women, developed the state”. “One person can never run a nation; it is run by the people; people have the strength. This has been the concept of the Congress party. While we want to empower our people to the maximum, the BJP wants to grab people’s power and hand over it to one individual” he added.
Emphasising that Congress believes in empowering the people, the Congress Vice President said, “You can see that our programmes reflect our ideology, whether it is employment guarantee scheme, Right to Information, Land Acquisition Bill or the Food security Act. All our schemes and policies are aimed at empowering the people”.
Referring the issue of corruption, Rahul Gandhi continued, “There are lots of discussions about corruption. The Gujarat cabinet has three convicted ministers, who were jailed on corruption charges. The BJP does not see corruption under its nose whether it is in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh. Yeddyurappa, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, who had sent to jail for corruption, is now back in BJP”.
The young Congress leader then struck a chord with the women and continued, “I want to see a day when 50% representation in Parliament, assemblies as well as in the Congress party is women. Country can never develop if we do not empower our women. 50% of our population is women and if we want to make India a super power, this 50% must be adequately empowered. The bill for women reservation is still pending in Parliament. But the opposition is stopping its passage; they are scared of the power of women. They don’t want the women to run industries, universities, Parliament or Assemblies or become Prime Minister or Chief Minister. Congress wants to give power to the women – in education, in Lok Sabha, in assemblies, politics, business and entrepreneurship”.
“Opposition indulge in politics of anger and hatred. But Congress’ ideology is based on love and brotherhood. That has been our tradition and now BJP wants to kill this ideology. They do not understand that Congress is not a party but a concept, which is deep, rooted in the hearts of all Indians. Our ideology is of equality; we treat everyone equally without any discrimination, whatever the caste, religion or region is” said Rahul Gandhi and asserted that UP can surge ahead fast only if the non-Congress political parties stop indulging in divisive politics.
Full text of the speech by Rahul Gandhi at Congress rally in Pratapgarh (Uttar Pradesh)