Rahul Gandhi: GST and demonetisation are being used as weapons to clear the way for business tycoons: Rahul Gandhi

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday questioned the central government’s ‘Make in India’ project, alleging that GST and demonetisation were being used as weapons to pave the way for business tycoons like Adani and Ambani. Addressing an election rally in support of the Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance candidates from 11 constituencies of Jammu district, Gandhi accused the BJP of using central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax (IT) department to intimidate its opponents.

Elections will be held in Jammu district and six other districts on October 1 in the third and final phase of the Jammu and Kashmir elections.

“They (the BJP) talk about ‘Make in India’ and the arms industry, but the reality is that all the contracts go to people like Adani. An Israeli company makes arms and Adani sticks its label on it.

“An Israeli company is making drones but the label is of Adani. They say it is ‘Made in India’ but how is that possible? These are Israeli weapons made by Adani and not in India and this is the situation across the country,” Gandhi said at the rally.

He claimed that the government only works for billionaires like Adani and Ambani.

“The GST was a weapon to attack entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises in Jammu. In the same way, demonetisation was also used as a weapon.”

“These are not political measures, they are weapons, and their aim was to clear the roads for people like Adani and Ambani. The misimplementation of GST and demonetisation led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country,” he said.

He said that the airports, ports, roads, defence weapons and even the apples produced in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are controlled by Adani. “Earlier, the Kashmiri apples were transported to the rest of the country via Jammu. Now they are in the hands of Adani, which also processes apples from Himachal Pradesh. The same applies to all industries.”

“We have Adani taxes on airports and Ambani’s mobile phone tax. If you want to move by road, the tax goes to Adani, crop farming is done by Adani, the tax on arms and ammunition used by the army goes to Adani. How long will this continue?” he asked.

He alleged that if an airport is run by someone else, the government uses the CBI and ED to force him to hand over the facility to Adani.

He accused the BJP-led government of waiving loans worth over Rs 16 billion to 25 business tycoons like Adani and Ambani. However, no such concession was given to the traders and farmers of Jammu, the youth who took study loans and the patients who spent huge sums on their treatment.

“If you take out a bank loan and don’t pay back the money, you’ll end up in prison,” he said.

The former Congress president said they had made the “complicated GST only for blackmail purposes”.

“If you do something wrong, the central agencies like ED, CBI, GST and tax department come, take the money and go. That is the system in the country under the rule of the BJP,” he said.

He said both Adani and Ambani have their place in this country, but “you (the people of Jammu and Kashmir) also deserve a place. It’s not that you give them everything and people can just watch.”

Referring to his conversation with a group of professionals when he arrived in Jammu earlier in the day, he said a girl told him that her dream of starting a small fragrance business had been dashed because the government did not provide her with the promised support.

Gandhi said the desperate girl no longer wanted to continue her business.