Rahul slams govt over rising inflation, shares video of his visit to Azadpur Mandi
NEW DELHI, Aug 7 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked the Centre over rising inflation and alleged that the government is not even listening to the poor, as he shared a video of his recent visit to the Azadpur Mandi where he had met some vegetable and fruit vendors as well as traders.
Gandhi shared the video of his interactions at the Azadpur Mandi on his social media handles.
In a tweet along with the link to his video, Gandhi said he met labourers, traders and farmers in Azadpur Mandi to know why there is ‘mandi (slowdown) in the Mandi’.
“Jata Shankar is a labourer who has not been able to go home, meet his family, for more than a year because of this work. How will he go, if he misses work, money will be deducted and it will become more difficult to survive in this inflation,” the former Congress chief said in a tweet in Hindi.
“A shopkeeper also told me that due to the losses, he has to sleep hungry two to three nights in a week. Far from solving the problems of the country’s poor, the government is not even listening to them!” Gandhi said.
Time will change, India will unite, the tears of the poor will be wiped off, Gandhi said.
“During the meeting, I talked with every section working in the market. Everyone has their own problems but still they are related to each other. Where the traders were troubled by GST and inflation, the labourers were troubled by unemployment along with inflation,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by a party statement on his visit to the Azadpur Mandi.
Kevalanand Lohani, a businessman, told Gandhi that there used to be savings in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, but he is facing losses under the current government.
“The children want me not to do this work, but there are no employment opportunities,” he tells Gandhi in the video.
“The most special thing about Azadpur Mandi is harmony here, people from every religion, caste and province work together here. Even if there is competition among themselves, there is respect,” Gandhi said.
He had last Tuesday visited the Azadpur Mandi in the national capital and met some vegetable and fruit vendors there.
The visit came days after he met some farmers planting paddy in their fields in Haryana’s Sonipat district and met some women farm labourers, whom he later invited them over to his mother’s residence.
Gandhi had shared food with some 30-odd women farmers from Haryana, with his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also joining them.
