Our soldiers have shed their blood and sacrificed their lives in J&K. They have done surgical strikes for our country.: Rahul Gandhi

A journey of about 3500 KMs, 30 days and 600 to 700 meetings with farmers, youths and people of India. Generally, leaders think that they know very well about the path on which India should tread. An ordinary man running his village or an MLA or an MP may think that they know which kind of path India should adopt. I want to say this with humility the poor have got me learn about India, about agriculture, about employment. But the fact is no one understands it better than our crores of people. The farmers of Popular trees informed me that the price of plywood is stagnant for the last five years. Five years ago, they got Rs 1500, now they are getting only Rs 250. Fields after fields have become barren; totally destroyed. The sugarcanefarmers told me that half of sugar-mills have shut down and the remaining half has not given payments for one year.

A farmer told me I can’t foresee the future. I am incapable to understand what will I do tomorrow? You have come here, my confidence has boosted a little bit but I want to tell you the truth that at times I think of committing suicide. This is the life-story of a farmer or a labourer for that matter. I came across lakhs of youths. I kept on asking them in lighter vein Modiji has promised to all of you. I ask Are there bank-accounts and they replied in affirmative. Did you get Rs 15 lakh? Not at all. Did you get employment? No. But such sort of conversations stopped midway. I kept on thinking that our crores of youth are dreaming of their employment. They are everywhere in this town, on the roads of UP, in small towns, in Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, MP. They are not demanding any gift or favour from this country. They want to work. They want to give something to this country. But our country failed to provide them employment opportunities. This has to be changed. This is not acceptable crores of youths are unemployed and nothing is being done in this regard.

I want to say to Narendra Modiji and to those associated with RSS and BJP that this country demands only one thing from you. You have asked many a time, “What has the Congress done in the last 70 years?” During this journey, I understood well what the Congress has done for the last 70 years. I want to tell you The Congress has done justice to all the people. The Congress has honoured the “scale of justice”. Narendra Modiji, you give Rs 1 lakh and 10 thousand crore to only 15 persons and on the other hand farmers in this country commit suicides. It simply means you are not honouring the “scale of justice”. You have thrown out the “scale of justice”. This country wants justice from you and you owe the responsibility to provide justice. You talked about giving Rs 15 lakh, you didn’t do it. You promised farmers to provide them equitable prices, you didn’t do it. You said to farmers that the Swaminathan Report would be implemented, you didn’t do that. You claimed that you will clean India, You didn’t do this too.

You said that you would do, “make in India” and “Connect India” but you didn’t do any of these initiatives. But you have certainly done two things. You have pitted one Indian against another. You have tried to divide India. Wherever your supporters go, they try to create tension among communities. They instigated a fight between Jats and non-Jats in Haryana. In Gujarat, Patidars came to me and expressed their deep concern that Narendra Modiji made our women beaten so severely like never before. You created tensions in Assam. You pitted Hindus against Muslims in UP. This is your contribution to this country which is causing serious harm and hence our country is not progressing.

The country wants only one thing you must provide justice. You should provide jobs to the youth. You should write off loans of farmers. You should reduce electricity-bills of farmers by 50%. They should be given fair prices for their produce (foodgrains and sugarcane). Labourers should be given fair wages. The Income-Tax department has served 7 lakh notices to small traders. These notices should be withdrawn. These all come within the ambit of your responsibility. But what are you doing? Our soldiers have shed their blood and sacrificed their lives in J&K. They have done surgical strikes for our country. In a sense, you are behind our soldier’s blood. This is totally wrong. The Indian Army has served the nation. You should do your duty. You should help our farmers. You should provide our soldiers the benefits of 7th Pay Commission. It is your duty. It is your responsibility. You must perform. The people of this country have elected you for this. I am very much grateful that you have come here. I am thankful to workers of the Congress Party, lakhs of farmers, lakhs of labourers and lakhs of unemployed youths who came along with me from Deoria to Delhi. I learnt a lot from you.

Thank you all very much. Namaskaar, Jai Hind.