Rahul Gandhi makes Special promise to Andhra

​Kurnool: In what is being seen as feverish attempt to revive party’s fortunes in Andhra Pradesh ahead of 2019 elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday pledged to accord special category status to the state the moment Congress comes to power at the Centre.

Rahul Gandhi, addressing his first public meeting in Andhra Pradesh at STBC College Grounds here after he took over the reins of the party, said amidst applause from people who turned in large numbers: “By according special category status to AP, we will be doing the state no favour.

It is a debt owed by the Prime Minister of India. The moment we come to power at the Centre, we will redeem the promise made by Manmohan Singh in his capacity as prime minister in Parliament at the time of the division of the state in 2014.”

Apparently stoking flames of hatred at BJP for not honouring the commitment made to the people of AP, Rahul Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose responsibility was to keep the promises made by his predecessor, conveniently glossed over them.

“At the time of division of the state, the BJP which was in Opposition then had argued for special category status for 10 years. But after coming to power, it had forgotten about it,” he said. The Congress president also reeled off the promises made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014 and how the Centre had gone back on them.

“The erstwhile UPA-II had included in the Act, among others, promises of steel plant at Kadapa, setting up of 12 educational institutions, including an IIT and an IIM, creation of a railway zone but none of them had been kept,” Rahul Gandhi said, describing the NDA’s volte-face as indicative of disrespect shown to the people of AP.

The Congress chief said that he was not in the habit of lying when he said he would accord special category status to AP. “This is a commitment made to the people and it is our responsibility. It is not a gift that we give to AP,” he pointed out, and reiterated that once a prime minister makes a promise that has to be enforced by the prime minister who steps into his shoes regardless who it would be. But Narendra Modi after taking over the reins, broke all the promises.

Rahul Gandhi, training his guns against at the NDA and particularly Modi, recalled the latter promising to be a chowkidar of the country if elected to power. After becoming the prime minister, he let the doors open to facilitate thieves to enter the house. “Vijay Mallya, before he fled the country with Rs 9,000 crore, met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and even told him that he planned to settle down in London.

The Finance Minister, instead of having him arrested, let him slip through his fingers. If a thief steals money and a policeman who is standing guard allows him escape, then the policeman would be thrown behind the bars. But Modi did not even sack Jaitley from his cabinet because Modi himself is corrupt,” he said.

Then Rahul wandered into Rafale deal how Narendra Modi’s dispensation benefited from it by handing over the contract to Anil Ambani who does not have any experience in making war-planes. “The Congress had given the contract to HAL for manufacture of the Rafale aircraft for Rs 526 crore each of the 126 war planes. But after Narendra Modi took over, the contract was annulled and Ambani was roped in after changing the contract, upping the cost of each fighter plane to Rs 1,600 crore. When I confronted Modi in Parliament on this, he could not look into my eyes straight.

If you ask him why he had not accorded special category status to AP, he would again look sideways because he knows he was at fault and therefore would not have courage to look into your eyes,” he said. Those who spoke included APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy, former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and former Union Minister K Suryaprakash Reddy.