“Your ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ works for the corporates whose taxes you reduced, while the salaried class pays higher taxes. The poor pays GST even on food and salt and rich corporates claim GST refunds. That is why when we talk of inequality between rich and poor, you are purposely equating it with Hindu and Muslim,” he said.
Making it clear that the Congress manifesto is “for the people of India whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist,” he also said, “I think you have still not forgotten your pre-independence allies, the Muslim League and colonial masters”.
In a strong rebuttal to Modi’s allegation that Congress will snatch even the ‘mangalsutras’ of women, Kharge said Modi and his government had been "repeatedly turned away from the atrocities and backward women are facing".
“Today you talk about their mangalsutra. Isn’t your government responsible for the atrocities against women in Manipur, atrocities against Dalit girls, garlanding of rapists? When farmers are committing suicides under your government, how are you protecting their wives and children?” he said.
Kharge also alleged that Modi’s government was snatching the earnings and wealth of the poor through acts like demonetisation, which was an "organised loot and legalised plunder" to transfer the money deposited by the poor in the banks to the rich in the form of loans.
Published 25 April 2024, 12:17 IST
