Modi gave Rs 16L crore to 25 people: Rahul

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him an instrument of a few rich businessmen in the country.

Gandhi alleged that Modi’s job was to distract people from the real issues in the country, protect the richest businessmen in India and “forgive their bank loans”.

“PM Narendra Modi is the instrument of five or six of the biggest, richest businessmen in India,” the sitting MP from Wayanad contended.

He claimed that Modi has given around Rs 16 lakh crores to 20-25 people in the country.

“But he does not talk of the issues farmers are facing in the country, the unemployment or the price rise,” Gandhi said while speaking to party supporters, workers and the huge crowd that turned up for his roadshow from Kodiyathur in this district.

On the electoral bonds issue, he said the bonds were a form of extortion carried out by PM Modi. Accusing the BJP and the RSS of trying to destroy and change the Constitution, he said that this was the only big issue of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and all other issues emanated from it.

Hitting out at the Modi over the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, Rahul Gandhi alleged that this scheme was formulated in Modi’s office and imposed on the armed forces. Gandhi said that as soon as the INDIA bloc’s government is formed at the Centre, the Agnipath military scheme will be scrapped and the old permanent recruitment process be brought back. “The Agnipath scheme is an insult to the Indian Army and the brave youth who dream of protecting the country. “Martyrs cannot be treated differently, every person who makes the supreme sacrifice for the country should be given the status of a martyr,” he said.