Agnipath, note ban, GST aimed at instilling fear in people, says Rahul at yatra rally in Maharashtra

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Attacking the Narendra Modi government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged the 'Agnipath' recruitment process for the armed forces, note ban and Goods and Service Tax policies formulated by the Centre were aimed at instilling fear among the people of the country as his Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its 68th day.

Speaking at a public meeting in Hingoli district of central Maharashtra, organised as part of the Congress's mass outreach programme, Gandhi said the prime minister wants 'Made in China' products as this will benefit "two-three billionaires" in the country.

"What is Narendra Modi ji doing? They (the BJP) are trying to spread fear, violence and hatred. Be it note ban, Agniveer, GST...all their policies only scare people.

The one who gets scared, there is hatred in his heart which leads to division in society. And then they say they are patriots," said the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala,
Under the Agnipath scheme, announced in June this year, youths from 17-and-a-half years to 21 years will be inducted into the armed forces for a four-year tenure, while 25 per cent of them will be subsequently inducted for regular service.

Gandhi criticised what he dubbed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) brand of "patriotism".

"Not waiving farmers' loans is patriotism, implementing the wrong GST is patriotism, spreading hatred in the country is patriotism, (bringing three) farm laws (later scrapped) is patriotism, unemployment is patriotism, and inflation is patriotism. This is not India's deshbhakti. This is RSS deshbhakti," he said.

The former Congress president maintained the 2016 note ban exercise and "faulty" implementation of the GST in 2017 were weapons to attack small shopowners and small and medium businesses.

"These policies were enacted to instill fear because they want to create hate. They want to divide people and spread violence and divert attention from the real issues," alleged the Lok Sabha MP in a scathing attack on the Centre.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Gandhi entered its 68th day as it resumed from Kalamnuri in Hingoli district on Monday after a one-day break.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said 600 copies of Jawaharlal Nehru's book 'Discovery of India' will be distributed to yatra participants on the occasion of the birth anniversary of India's first prime minister.

The cross-country foot-march took a one-day break in Maharashtra on Sunday and proceeded from Kalamnuri in Hingoli to Washim district on Monday.

"Today is 68th day of #BharatJodoYatra & also 133rd birth anniversary of Nehru. We are in Hingoli district & coincidentally a fine book on him in Marathi has just come out in addition to one in English & Hindi," Ramesh said in a tweet.

"(Mo)istorians will continue to distort, defame and denigrate but Nehru continues to inspire & his relevance has only increased after 2014. 600 copies of Nehru's iconic, The Discovery of India, will be distributed to Yatris today. It was brought by a volunteer who drove all the way from Delhi for 23 hours straight at a very short notice," said the Congress general secretary in-charge of communications.

The yatra, which started from Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, has so far covered 28 districts in six states.

The Congress's mass contact initiative will cover a distance of 382 km across five districts of Maharashtra before entering Madhya Pradesh on November 20.

It will pass through 12 states before culminating in Jammu and Kashmir in January after covering a distance of 3,570 km over nearly 150 days.

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