Rahul Gandhi: Narendra Modi’s bullet train was ‘like a magic train’

On Wednesday, 4th July 2018, Rahul Gandhi said Narendra Modi’s bullet train was “like a magic train” because it would never materialize under the current government, as he ridiculed the Prime Minister on a host of issues including the high-speed rail corridor plan.

The Congress chief said in Amethi that “Modi’s bullet train is like a magic train which may not materialize in reality.”

In Maharashtra’s Palghar district the fruit growers have refused to give their land for the planned service between Ahmedabad and Mumbai thus the $17-billion Japan-backed bullet train project has hit a roadblock. Agitation against the linear rail corridor is also started by them.

Rahul told a meeting of farmers at Mukutnath Inter College in the Talakhajuri area of his parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh where he reached on Wednesday for a two-day tour that “If at all such a bullet train is started in India, it would only be done by a Congress government because we work with honest intentions.”

He called the Modi government “weak”, a label the BJP had often used for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when the party was in the Opposition.

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Rahul said, “Modi met the Chinese President with folded hands and sat with him on a swing. Later, he went to China but remained mum on the issue of entry of Chinese forces into Indian territory. Modi didn’t speak even a word on Doklam. We don’t need such a weak government. India is the third most important power center in the world. We need to make it number one.”

Rahul claimed the Prime Minister was insensitive to the country’s basic problems. “Unemployment is growing, the condition of farmers is deteriorating and the inflation rate is going up. Employment in general would have tackled the inflation to some extent had the government focused on job creation,” he said.

The Congress president criticized Modi government’s decision on Wednesday to increase the minimum support price of Kharif crops, including paddy, as mere eyewash.

“The Centre didn’t give anything to farmers in 2017. The PM tried to finish the agricultural sector and the farmers by ignoring their problems. While he promised to protect the farmers and started the Fasal Bina Yojana, a crop insurance scheme, 95 per cent claims of farmers have not been disposed of in the past one year,” he said.

He also said the BJP-led government’s announcement of a relief measure didn’t mean it would be implemented honestly.

During a search operation in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-infested Sukma in April this year, in Naraini village, Rahul met the family members of Anil Kumar Maurya, a 50-year-old CRPF sub-inspector who was killed.

The Congress chief held a chaupal that means meeting with villagers of Sarai-Mahesua in Tiloi block and asked them what they felt about the goods and services tax and the November 2016 demonetization decision.

Rahul told the villagers, “These ideas were, in fact, meant to benefit 10 or 15 corporate houses close to Modi.”

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