Rahul Gandhi Says PM Insulted Nation, "His Elite Friends" Escaped Charges

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleging that India made little or no progress during decades of Congress rule, saying this was an insult to the people who built the nation.

"Modiji says India was a sleeping giant before he became Prime Minister. This is an insult to all the Indians who have built this nation," Mr Gandhi told an election rally at Rajasthan's Pokhran.

He said PM Modi earlier used to talk about creation of jobs and wiping out corruption but forgot all about that the moment he became the Prime Minister.

"Modi used to say 'don't make me Prime Minister, make me country's chowkidar'. Before becoming the Prime Minister he used to talk about jobs, just price for farmers... But the moment he became Prime Minister, he forgot all that."

Mr Gandhi said young men he spoke to in Rajasthan were jobless and farmers too complained of not getting right prices for their produce.

He railed against PM Modi over the issue of black money, dropping hints that PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley helped businessman Vijay Mallya leave the country after failing to pay back the huge loans he had taken from banks.

"He told you that this (demonetisation) was a fight against black money... What happened was that his elite friends turned black money worth billions into white. Mere months later, Nirav Modi ran away defaulting on Rs 35,000 crore. One man alone devoured a year's budget for MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)," he said.

"Before fleeing the country, Mallya meets Jaitley and Jaitley lets him flee. This is Modi's 'fight against black money'," Mr Gandhi added.