New Delhi : Kanhaiya Kumar, who joined Congress this week, on Saturday said the Congress has grown stronger over the years, adding that it is proved by the fact that even those who “believe in Godse” are paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
Kumar was speaking at an event of the All India Unorganised Workers’ Congress on Gandhi Jayanti at the Congress headquarters, his first since joining the party.
“Even those who believe in the philosophy of Godse have to bow to Gandhi… This is the power of the Gandhian ideology,” Kumar said at the event which saw the participation of hundreds of workers from the unorganised sector.
He was referring to Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.
“The Congress has grown stronger, even Prime Minister Modi has to show himself to be a Gandhian, it proves Congress has become stronger,” he said.
Kumar, a former students’ leader from AISF, who quit the Communist Party of India (CPI) to join the Congress, said, “There are some people who want to limit Gandhi to cleanliness, his philosophy was about much more than that”.
He also remembered former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who gave the slogan of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, and said, “Farmers have been sitting at Delhi’s borders for months, the Prime Minister can visit US, but can’t meet them.”
“We need to understand our responsibility towards farmers and labourers, we need to work on the philosophy of Gandhi and Shastri.
He also launched an attack on the government’s monetisation policy and the Central Vista project.
“When we say the government is selling national property, their supporters say it is not being sold, it is being leased out. If the Prime Minister is ‘chowkidar’, why is he giving away our national property,” he said.
“It is obvious that the government needs funds, if they are in shortage, why is the Prime Minister making a Rs. 20,000 crore palace for himself? That money should be distributed to people under the Nyay scheme as proposed in the Congress manifesto,” he said.
Nyay – of the Nyuntam Aay Yojana as proposed by the Congress in its 2019 general election manifesto promised that the party, if voted to power in the 2019 Indian general election, would enact a law for universal basic income for the bottom 20 percent Indians.
“If your father is unwell, you sell your land and get him treated, it makes sense… But if your father is unwell, and you sell your land to buy a Bullet (motorcycle), would that be right?” he said.
Kumar joined the Congress on September 28. Independent MLA from Gujarat, Jignesh Mevani also swore allegiance to Congress on the same day and said he would contest the next election in the state on Congress symbol, even if he did not join the party as that would have required him to quit his post.
