‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ Rally

Shri Rahul Gandhi addressed the ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ Rally at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, on September, 4, 2022

Dear workers of our party, brothers and sisters, a very warm welcome to all of you here, ‘Namaskar’!

You can very well perceive the condition of the country today. Whatever is happening in the country cannot evade your bird’s-eye. Ever since the BJP government came to power, hatred and anger have been brewing in the country, isn’t it right? (People said ‘Yes’). You feel that hatred and anger have been increasing in the country, am I right? (The public responded with a‘Yes’). Who are the ones who hate? Hatred is a form of fear. It arises in the hearts of those who are afraid. He who is not afraid, doesn’t give room to hatred in his heart. So, brothers and sisters, saying that hatred is increasing in India is synonymous to fear increasing in India. It is the fear of the future, the fear of inflation, the fear of unemployment which is increasing and as a result of which, hatred is increasing in India. And what does hatred lead to? People are divided by hatred. The country is divided and becomes weak.

Leaders of BJP and RSS divide the country, create fear deliberately, scare people and breed hatred. Now the question arises - for whom is it done and why? Who is getting the benefit of this fear, this hatred? Brothers and sisters, is the poor man of India getting the benefit of this fear and hatred? Tell me, in the last 8 years, what benefit did Narendra Modi’s government give to a poor man of India, to a farmer, to a laborer, to a small shopkeeper? Just two Indian industrialists are reaping all the benefits out of this fear and hatred. If you ask the rest of the industrialists, even they will confirm that in the last 8 years only two persons have benefited, which is visible quite openly. Everything is going into the hands of these two people - be it the airport, be it the port, be it the roads, everything from cell phones to oil, everything. Media scares the country. Hate arises and then BJP gives full benefit to two people.

You see, Narendra Modi ji did demonetization. Did demonetization benefit the poor? (The public said - No) He took money out of the pockets of the poor, misguided the poor by saying that it is a fight against black money and then after a few months you saw that with the money which was taken out of your pocket, the millions of rupees, loans of most of the country’s big industrialists were waived off. But farmers’ loans were not waived off. Instead, he brought three black laws against farmers. He said that the laws were for the benefit of farmers. If they were meant for the benefit of the farmers, then why did farmers stand in protest across the country? Why did they take to the streets? Why are they standing against you? These three laws were not meant for the farmers, they were meant for the very duo (the two industrialists) and the farmer of India understood this very clearly. That is why, the law of India, the farmer of India stood against the laws on roads and questioned Narendra Modi ji. They showed their power to him and when Narendra Modi ji came to know that the collective power of the Indian farmer was standing against him, he repealed the laws right away.

The same thing happened with GST. The Congress party wanted to bring some other GST. The BJP changed the GST - with five different taxes, it caused tremendous injury to small shopkeepers, small and medium size businesses, laborers, farmers, and what is the condition today? My heart bleeds to say this from this stage here, but today, the condition of India is such that even if the country wants, the country will not be able to give employment to its youth, why?

Brothers and sisters, these two industrialists do not give employment to the country. Small and medium businesses give employment to the country. Farmers give employment to the country and Narendra Modi ji has struck the backbone of these people quite hard. So, those who could give employment to this country have been crippled. The unemployment that you see around today will multiply manifold in the coming times. On one hand you are suffering from unemployment and on the other you are suffering from inflation.

I have the data. In 2014, LPG cylinder was at Rs. 410, today it is at Rs. 1,050. Petrol was Rs. 70 a liter, today it is around Rs. 100 a liter; Diesel was Rs. 55 a litre, today it is priced at Rs. 90 a litre; Mustard oil was at Rs. 90 a liter, today priced at Rs. 200 a liter; Milk was Rs. 35 a litre, today it is Rs. 60 a litre; Flour was - 22 rupees, today it is priced at - 40 rupees per kg. So, on one hand you are being hurt by unemployment and on the other hand there is tremendous inflation.

Brothers and sisters, India has never seen such inflation. Narendra Modi used to say, what did the Congress party do in 70 years - in 70 years, the Congress party did not allow so much inflation to flourish in India. So, the common citizen of India is in deep waters. He/she is suffering a lot and when the opposition wants to raise these things in the Parliament, then Narendra Modi ji and his government do not allow the opposition to speak in the Parliament. Whether it is the issue of farmers, whether we want to talk about Chinese invasion, whether we want to talk about unemployment or inflation, we cannot do so. We can’t do it in the Parliament and you see, here we have friends from the media, their job is to raise public issues, but even they do not do their work, 24x7. How will they do it? The entire media is in the hands of the same two industrialists, so how will the truth be seen, how will the truth be heard? The public knows everything. When the public turns on the TV in the house, it knows for whom the TV is working? TV belongs to the two industrialists, newspapers belong to the two industrialists and these two industrialists work 24x7 for Narendra Modi, who reciprocates the same. On one hand, there is unemployment in the country, inflation in the country and on the other hand, the entire wealth of the country is in the hands of the two industrialists. There is control of the media on one side and control of the Prime Minister on the other.

Someone said just now, “Narendra Modi ji is the Prime Minister, but I can guarantee that Narendra Modi ji is the Prime Minister, but without those two industrialists, Narendra Modi ji cannot be the Prime Minister. Without the support of the media, Narendra Modi cannot be the Prime Minister. And the institutions of India, whether it is the media, whether it is the press, whether it is our judiciary, whether it is our election commission, all of them are under pressure. All of them are being attacked by the government. So, what is the need of the ‘Yatra’ - the need of the ‘Yatra’ arises due to the fact that there is no other option left for the opposition. We will have to go directly to the people. The media is not ours, we cannot speak in the Parliament, so now the only way for the Congress party and the rest of the opposition is to go to the people and tell them the truth of the country.

Whoever wants to work against Narendra Modi ji, no matter who it is - whether it is the opposition party, or an activist, or any person from the NGO - there is tremendous attack on him. ED, CBI, Income Tax, all of these institutions are let loose. ED made me sit there for 55 hours, but I want to explain one thing to Narendra Modi ji. I’m not afraid of your ED, I don’t mind whether you do it for 55 hours, or for 100 hours, or 200 hours, or 500 hours, or 5 years, I don’t care. Today, every Indian citizen will have to protect this Constitution of ours, which is the soul of this country. Because if we don’t do this, if we don’t stand up today, then this country would not survive. Because this country means its Constitution, this country means the voice of its people, this country means the future of its people. This country does not belong to any two industrialists. This country belongs to its poor people.

Two ‘Hindustans’ have been formed today. One comprises the workers, the poor, the farmers and the unemployed youth. No one is allowed to dare to dream in that country. On cannot find employment in that country. In that half of the country, if you want to send your kids to a college or a university, you can’t even do that. You will have to give your blood and sweat there and even after doing that, you will not reap any benefit. And on the other hand, there is a ‘Hindustan’ that comprises 10-15 big industrialists, billionaires within this India. You can dream of whatever you want and even realize those dreams in that half. There, you may even get whatever you want. Brothers and sisters, the fight is between these two ‘Hindustans’.

Narendra Modi Ji’s ideology says that the country has to be divided and the entire benefit has to be given to the selected lot. Our ideology says that the country belongs to all and the people of the country, who give their blood and sweat to it, must all reap benefits from it. Instead of only 2-3 industrialists benefitting from the country, the farmer, laborer, poor, unemployed youth of India should get its benefits. This is the difference and you may also go out there and ask any small shopkeeper, any laborer, any small and medium business person, any farmer, the difference between UPA’s time and today’s time. During the time of the UPA, the UPA government gave Rs. 70,000 crores to the farmers of India. Narendra Modi ji gave three black laws without any deliberation. The UPA government gave a historic law, MGNREGA. Narendra Modi ji said in the Parliament that MGNREGA is an insult to the poor and then today, they are themselves resorting to NREGA, because if there was no NREGA of UPA today, India would have been set ablaze itself. We brought the land acquisition bill, we gave lakhs of crores of rupees in compensation to the poor people, lakhs of crores of rupees and created billionaires.

Earlier, farmers’ land was taken away without seeking their permission, thousands of acres were taken away without any deliberation. We raised our voice against it, we brought the law and the first thing Narendra Modi did was to repeal that law, that was his first act! There was economic progress during UPA’s time. We lifted crores of people out of poverty. We lifted 27 crore people out of poverty, 27 crore people in 10 years! We did so by using tools like Right to food, MGNREGA and loan waivers. Brothers and sisters, in the last 8 years Narendra Modi ji has pushed 23 crore people back into poverty. So, whatever we created in 10 years, he finished all that in 8 years and then he goes on to deliver speeches, talk about progress, talk about ‘New India’, talk about ‘Make in India’, say that ‘Hindustan’ has changed.

Narendra Modi ji is pulling India in the opposite direction. Narendra Modi ji is spreading hatred in India, spreading fear and this will harm the country. The country cannot be benefited by this at all. The enemies of the country will benefit like China and Pakistan but definitely not India. The more the hatred spreading in India, the more the anger will spread, the more the fear will spread, the more the India will be weaker and in the last 8 years, Narendra Modi has worked to weaken India. He destroyed our economic power. He gifted Unemployment, that too, the highest unemployment in 40 years to India.

I want to ask you whether the country is strengthened by inflation, by unemployment or by hatred? In which part of the world have hatred, unemployment and inflation strengthened the country? The country is weakened and Narendra Modi ji and BJP are working to weaken the country. The Congress party unites the country, we remove hatred, and when hatred disappears, when it ends, when fear subsides, then India progresses rapidly. We have done it. We have done it for years. So, this is what I wanted to tell you.

I want to thank the Congress workers for you fight for our ideology, you fight for India, you fight for the Constitution, you give your blood, your sweat to this country. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and I want to tell you that only a worker of Congress party can save the country. The ideology of the Congress party can lead the country on the path of progress. For us the government, as I said - has shut the ways. Parliament has been shut to us. People from the Congress party or opposition can’t make speeches in the Parliament, our mics go off suddenly. We can’t talk on any issue. Be it about Chinese invasion, or about unemployment, or about inflation. The ways are all shut. I said that our institutions - whether it is the media, whether it is the Election Commission, or the Judiciary - they are under attack, they are under pressure. So, all the roads have been shut to us and thus, there is only one way left and we like that path the best. The truth of the country has to be told to the people by going among them and also listen deeply to them and understand what the public has got to say. Therefore, the Congress party is starting the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of you to have come from far and wide. There is a battle of ideologies and the ideology of Congress party and all our opposition parties together will defeat the ideology of BJP and RSS.

Thank you very much. Namastey. Jai Hind.