Modi's strength is his image, I will rip it to pieces: Full text of Rahul Gandhi's exclusive interview
Rahul Gandhi speaks to India Today about his sense of India's mood and his blueprint for the country and its economic revival.
Q. Is Election 2019 a battle between NYAY and nationalism?
No! 2019 is being fought on three or four different axes. One axis is that we are faced with an unemployment crisis: across the country, youngsters are just not getting jobs. The second is agriculture: Mr Narendra Modi's policies have destroyed agriculture. The third is that the economy is not firing the way it should: transactions are not taking place, the steady economic growth we had seen in the UPA years has fizzled out. Of the other two axes, one is clear-cut massive corruption by Mr Modi in Rafale and the second is the attempt to attack India's institutionsthe Supreme Court, the Election Commission, the Planning Commissionin a bid to shape politics in Mr Modi's favour.
Q. But the BJP and Modi have projected the election as a debate on security, nationalism and patriotism.
A. Mr Modi uses national security to divert attention from the big issues India confronts. India's youth are unemployed and can't see a future for themselves. That's a huge national issue. Why doesn't the PM speak about his record on unemployment in his speeches? Are mass farmer suicides not a major national issue? Of course, they are. So why doesn't the PM say, I committed to you that I would give 2 crore jobs, but I failed. I committed that I would put Rs 15 lakh in every bank account, I failed. I committed that agriculture would be given full priority, I failed. These are the real national issues. Why doesn't he speak on these issues?
Q. What about the security issues the BJP is referring to as real threats to the nation?
A. The biggest threat to the nation is that what worked for India in the 1990s doesn't work anymore. And Mr Modi refuses to accept it. We accepted it. Our policies worked till about 2012. They began to falter in the last two years of the UPA. Mr Modi is doing what we were trying to do between 2012 and 2014, and he has added to it completely insane ideas like demonetisation! So you have an economy that isn't firing and suddenly the PM decides to entirely decimate Indian business. Ask any Indian businessman what the Gabbar Singh Tax' and demonetisation have done to him. Large businessmen, small businessmen, ask anyone. Ask a farmer, ask anybody. Where did Mr Modi get the idea that destroying Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would be beneficial to the country? It boggles the mind. So, absolutely, there are threats to the economy. But Pakistan's support of terrorism is something that we will fight 100 per cent and make sure it isn't allowed to get away with supporting terror in our country. But I also want the PM to answer how 45 CRPF men died. I understand that Pakistan wants to carry out terror
