Congress President Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, 17 May, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of borrowing ideas from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2004 tenure, abusing them and repurposing the same ideas for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to Raghav Bahl, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Quint and Sanjay Pugalia, Editorial Director of The Quint, Gandhi said there was no option to accelerate the economy but opt for a paradigm shift.
The Gandhi scion added that while the economic model worked for the Congress in the 90s, it worked “reasonably well” when it was tweaked again in 2001, the model eventually collapsed in 2012.
He claimed that the prime minister was proposing to run the ‘collapsed’ model of 2004 in 2019.
“We are of the view that a new paradigm is needed. What he (PM Modi) is proposing is that ‘I am going to run the 2004 model again’. That’s why he’s getting the response he is getting... It’s going to be a paradigm shift, but it’s not going to be whimsical.”Rahul Gandhi, Congress President
‘PM Modi Has Destroyed the Economy’
Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of the current state of India’s economy, saying:
“Modi has sucked the money out of the economy... The most anti-national thing you can do is (to) destroy the economy.”Rahul Gandhi, Congress President
While calling for deregulation and the need put an end to red tape, the Congress President pointed out that the need of the hour is to "think about how India interacts with world" and then "come up with two-three bets".
“A really big, powerful bet is completely re-thinking what healthcare is in India. India can become the force that shapes the world’s healthcare.”Rahul Gandhi, Congress President
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)