Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress sees Modi's rhetoric to boost its ‘rich-poor divide’ narrative

New Delhi: The Congress believes that its ‘rich-poor divide’ narrative coupled with a campaign centred around unemployment and price rise, has “unsettled” the ruling BJP as evident in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's shift in rhetoric.

On Tuesday, the Congress doubled down their campaign theme, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge claiming the gap between the rich and the poor is “at a 100 year high, even more than the British Raj” and that in the last ten years, Modi has “worked only for 2-3 of his close friends”.

“All national resources of the country have been sold to these super-rich crony capitalists, including airports, ports, coal mines, power plants, and PSUs, at throwaway prices. Modi-ji’s top 22 rich friends hold wealth equal to 70 crore Indians,” he claimed.

In the first nine years of the Modi government, he alleged, more than one lakh farmers committed suicide. Every single day, on average, 30 farmers committed suicide. For the first time in independent India, taxes were imposed on farmers, he added.

Without wading into the communal conundrum, Congress sources said, the party is highlighting its agenda without falling into the “trap” set by the BJP. They said the BJP “desperately wants” them to join the issue but they have decided to counter it by talking about "real issues". They feel that Modi's rhetoric is a response to their agenda gaining ground.

Congress poll managers said Modi's remarks are actually helping them as it showed how scared he is about the BJP's performance. They said their campaign theme that Modi is “anti-poor” is getting reinforced. However, they are yet to ascertain how it would impact on voters of the majority community.

The Congress has already approached the Election Commission against Modi's “hate speech” in Rajasthan’s Banswara that the opposition party would redistribute the wealth of people to “infiltrators”, “those who have more children” and “Muslims”.

Modi repeated his allegations while also claiming that Congress wants to give quota to Muslims by chipping away from the share of Dalits and tribals, an allegation rejected by the opposition party.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said that the Prime Minister “will never tell you” that more than 40 per cent of the wealth created in the country from 2012 to 2021 has gone to just 1 per cent of the population and approximately 64 per cent of the total GST comes from the poor, the lower middle classes, and the middle classes.

“Most of the public assets and resources sold in the last ten years have gone to one or two companies -- economists have shown that the growing monopolisation of the economy has led to higher inflation. Today, 21 billionaires combined have more wealth than 70 crore Indians,” he said.

Ramesh said India needs faster economic growth, vastly more inclusive economic growth, hugely more ecologically sustainable growth and only the I.N.D.I.A. bloc can deliver this triad.

“This is his default of spreading lies and fooling people by misrepresenting facts and spreading Hindu-Muslim narratives. People are sick and tired of this now, as he uses these dangerous narratives to hide his monumental failures as the Prime Minister,” Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said.