Kozhikode, Kerala:
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi addresses a party rally in Kozhikode, Kerala.
Here are the highlights of his speech:
Today is the first birthday party pof our government. The NDA government is celebrating it's first birthday. I want to officially wish the 'suit-boot' sarkar, a very happy birthday.
But our Kisans have nothing to celebrate.
1st reason for this government being a 'suit-boot sarkaar' is our PM's fascination for clothes. He has been called a fashion icon and I think that's a good thing.
What many people did not like was for possibly the first time, any PM wore a suit worth 10 lakh rupees.
The Prime Minister doesn't seem to understand the poor of this country.
People genuinely felt uncomfortable that here is a country where people are working day in day out on MNREGA and their PM wears such a suit. It showed a certain insensitivity towards the poor people of this country.
What we can fault the PM for is his approach towards the poor people of this country.
When the farmers have a difficult time under the UPA government, we gave Rs 70,000 crore to the farmers.
The most important thing that we did for the farmers - the Land Bill - is being destroyed.
Modi ji promised an increase in the MSP but nothing happened.
We had said if the project hasn't started in 5 years, the land should go back to the farmer. The BJP government for some reason is in a very big hurry to change this law.