LUCKNOW: Continuing her series of ‘pratigya’ (promises), Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on Sunday, announced that if the Congress came to power in Uttar Pradesh, 20 lakh youths would be given jobs, women would get the facility of free bus travel and fishing would be given the status of farming.
“The Nishad community will have rights over rivers and sand mining. We will also set up a university in the name of Guru Matsyendranath (Guru of Gorakhnath),” she said while speaking at a Pratigya rally in Gorakhpur.
She further announced that if the Congress came to power, the ad hoc and contract workers would be regularised and the purchase price of wheat and paddy would be raised to Rs 2,500 while sugarcane MSP would be Rs 400.
“Women will be given three free gas cylinders in a year and treatment up to Rs 10 lakh would be free for all. Besides, we will ensure full loan waiver for farmers. ASHA workers would be given an honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month,” she added.
Priyanka said that India was a nation that survived on faith. “We have faith in the earth, faith in religion, faith in our labour and faith in our leaders. We have faith in what the leaders say and when huge advertisements tell us that development has arrived, we begin to wonder. Time has come to question our leaders and ask them where is the development,” she said.
Mounting a scathing attack on the Yogi Adityanath government, she said that the chief minister was working against the principles of Guru Gorakhnath.
“Amit Shah said that law and order in UP is perfect. In Lakhimpur, his party leaders mowed down farmers. In Gorakhpur, the police killed businessman Manish Gupta. In Lucknow, an executive Vivek Tiwari was shot dead by policemen and in Unnao one girl was raped and set on fire while another was raped and an attempt was made to kill her in an accident. You do not need a binocular to see the reality but a good pair of spectacles,” she said.
Priyanka berated the Modi government and said that they had promised to enable a person with ‘hawai chappal’ to travel by air. “But travelling by road has become impossible due to rising fuel prices. The Prime Minister flies to Italy in his Rs 8,000 crore aircraft but in UP farmers die waiting in queues for fertilizer. A farmer’s income is Rs 27 per day but his businessmen friends earn Rs 1,000 crore per day,” she said.
Priyanka said that politics would change drastically if more women came in.
She ended her speech with ‘Jai Guru Matsyendranath’ and ‘Jai Guru Gorakhnath’ — both spiritual gurus of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.