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Drawing an analogy with the Pandava-Kaurava tussle in the epic Mahabharata, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the fight between his party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat was one between "truth and lies", where the truth lay on the Congress's side.
Gandhi said that while the prime minster was armed with his "government, police, army, governments in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh", he had truth on his side "and we need nothing other than truth".
"The fight is between truth and lies. Kauravas had a huge army, weapons, and Pandavas only had truth and nothing else. I would like to tell you that we only have truth and nothing else," he said at a rally at Nana Pondha town in the tribal-dominated Valsad district.
Gandhi resumed campaigning in the poll-bound state after returning from Rae Bareli where he had flown to meet the victims of Wednesday's blast at an NTPC power plant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed in providing jobs to the youth, and instead of creating two crore jobs every year as promised by him, only one lakh jobs are being generated a year, Gandhi said.
He also accused Modi of lying over the promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in every person's account by bringing back black money stashed abroad.
The Congress government will stick to truth, even if it is unpalatable, Gandhi said.
"What is being said by the six crore people of Gujarat is different from what is being said by these three-four people and their industrialist friends who run the state," he said.
"The truth of Gujarat has nothing to do with the truth of BJP. And the truth of BJP has nothing to do with the truth of Gujarat," he said, alleging that farmers, tribals, the poor, patidars, Dalits were all aggrieved due the BJP government's policies.
"The truth of Gujarat is unemployment among youths, difficulties faced by farmers, costly private education and health care, corruption and theft of land. And the truth of BJP is profits pocketed by five-ten corporates, theft of land and water, and toffee of Rs 35,000 crore in the name of Nano (apparent reference to a loan for Tata Nano plant), and 'suit-boot ki yaari' (closeness to corporates)," he said.
The BJP government in the state has failed to provide employment, and is privatising education and health for the benefit of a few people which has made them expensive, the Congress vice-president said.
Addressing the pre-dominantly tribal audience, Gandhi also blamed the state government for not implementing the tribal bill introduced by the UPA government.
"Ask Modiji when he comes here, you had promised to create jobs for two crore youths, today only 450 youths get job. Also ask why did you snatch away the land of farmers. And also whether you are giving the Narmada water to tribals, farmers, or only your corporate friends," he said.
"Only the Congress can offer you jobs, education, health care. We will not make false promises like giving Rs 15 lakh. Sometimes you may not like the truth. But this state cannot go ahead without truth. No one better than Gujarat understands truth... Two sons of Gujarat, Gandhiji and Sardar Patel fought against a superpower and let it know the power of truth," Rahul Gandhi said.
Photograph: ANI