SHILLONG: The Congress party showed its strength in the state just ahead of the Assembly polls as the AICC president, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit the streets of Shillong to campaign for the party during a road show.
Rahul Gandhi immediately after landing at the helipad in Upper Shillong moved to the capital town with party leaders and in-between he got down from the vehicle to meet the people who had lined up to have a glimpse of the AICC chief.
After reaching Khyndailad, the commercial hub of the town, Rahul Gandhi addressed a jam- packed Khyndailad where he tore apart the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi over the ideology of the BJP and the massive scam involving Nirav Modi.
Several party candidates including Ampareen Lyngdoh , Manas Chaudhuri, Charles Pyngrope, Mohendro Rapsang and Shillong MP Vincent Pala were also present at the dais.
Castigating BJP during his speech, Gandhi said that the BJP bought some Congress MLAs in Meghalaya and the BJP offered crores of rupees to churches here because they have arrogance to believe that they can buy church, religion and even God
“Their level of arrogance is disgusting,” he said.
Gandhi slammed the BJP saying the saffron party considers Meghalaya to be a central part of India but his approach is, “Meghalaya is India, India is Meghalaya”
Stating that the Congress believes in the ideas of the people since the country will move forward with these ideas, he said that the Opposition party BJP, however, believed that there were certain ideas in India which should rule all over the country.
“They believe their central idea should dominate all other ideas, culture, languages and religion and this is our fight with them,” Gandhi said.
Citing instances about Madhya Pradesh, he said that they were burning churches and beating up people for singing Christmas carol besides promoting the atmosphere of fear in Gujarat.
He expressed optimism that the Congress would beat BJP in Meghalaya even as he added that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had sufficient time to explain to students on how to pass the examination but he did not have 5 minutes time to condemn when Churches were burnt in Madhya Pradesh and common people were butchered.
Launching a scratching attack on the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi over the PNB Scam, he said that the Prime Minister did not have time to explain to people on how Nirav Modi took away 22000 crores of rupees and escaped to England.
“The PM always talks about corruption but he has no answer as where does money they spend in poll campaign comes from,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi even urged the people of the state to give a message to BJP not only for Meghalaya but for the entire country that people cannot be bought and their cultures cannot be taken away.
“We will sing and play any song we like and people of Meghalaya will not sing only those songs which Mohan Bhagwat and Narendra Modi likes,” he said.
Soon after the gathering, Rahul Gandhi once again went to the huge crowd at Khynadailad and greeted them and there was a situation of chaos for few minutes.
Later when Rahul Gandhi’s convoy passed through the GS Road, the crowd from both sides greeted Gandhi.
The AICC chief also send the Special Protection Group into tizzy on several occasion when he got down from his vehicle and proceeded to the people on both side of the road to greet them.
In his journey, a family also gave their infant baby to Rahul Gandhi and Gandhi held the baby for few second and showed affection.
Later, Gandhi also suddenly entered a vehicle repairing workshop and greeted the workers working inside the workshop.