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At an election rally in Gonda, she also targeted Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the stray animal menace, accusing him of taking note of the issue when election approaches.
Gandhi also accused the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party of dividing people on the lines of caste and religion.
Scoffing at the prime minister, she described him as ‘antaryami’ and ‘sarvagyani’ which mean omniscient. ”Stray animals are ruining your farms and they seem to be unaware of it. Modi ji is ‘antaryaami and sarvgyaani’… But he was unaware that farmers in the biggest state of our country are suffering and dying because stray animals are destroying their crops,” Priyanka Gandhi said derisively.
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”But Modi Ji, who has government in Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, was unaware of this (farmers’ problems).
Now when the elections are here, the prime minister has taken note of it and announced a solution, Priyanka Gandhi said sarcastically and asked where was he during the last five years.
”You (Modi) were nowhere to be seen when youth struggled for jobs, farmers protested and atrocities committed against women. You travelled the world got pictures clicked with foreign politicians and came to Uttar Pradesh now,” she added.
The Congress general secretary also slammed the rival parties for ”dividing people on caste and communal lines”.
These political leaders have understood that they do not need to work for the public as they are assured of getting votes by invoking religion, she said.
”But who has nurtured this habit among them? The people have.” She called on the people to break this habit of the BJP, BSP and SP leaders who she accused of doing nothing but lying to the people while seeking votes.
”Look at Yogi (Adityanath) ji. Although he is a ‘yogi’ (monk), he travels in big cars and moves with a big security contingent. ”But when it comes to problems like the farmers’ protest and atrocities against women, then all go hiding,” Priyanka Gandhi alleged.
She said the farmers protested on Delhi’s borders, barely 10 km from the prime minister’s residence, for over a year and 700 died. ”The prime minister, who otherwise travels the whole world, did not show up. He bought two aircraft costing Rs 16,000 crore but was unable to clear pending dues worth Rs 14,000 of farmers.
Where was the prime minister then? Why did he not show up,” Priyanka Gandhi asked.
She also slammed Modi and Yogi Adityanath for sharing a stage with Union Minister Ajay Mishra, whose son Ashish Mishra is key accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed. The minister’s son, who was arrested on October 9, 2021, six days after the incident, got released on bail earlier this month.
”When the son of a minister of his government mowed down six farmers under the wheels of his jeep, why did the prime minister and the Uttar Pradesh chief minister not go to meet the families of the victims? Why no action was taken against him (minister’s son)?” ”A few days later, they held a programme in Lucknow where the father of that boy (Ashish Mishra) shared the stage with them. They did not even seek his resignation. What kind of leaders are they? What ‘dharma’ do they talk about?” she posed. Gonda in eastern Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls on February 28 during the fifth phase of the assembly elections. The results will be declared on March 10.