The Congress party, in its desperation to win the upcoming elections has started to play the victim card. The members of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty have resorted to emotional appeal over imagined sacrifice of their family in the cause of nation. Party president, Rahul Gandhi seeks to bring voters by calling himself and people of his constituency-the victims of Modi government.
Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Railways Minister, Piyush Goyal on August 30 over a list of 10 things that needs to be done by the railways in Amethi, the constituency he represents in Lok Sabha since the 2004 general elections. He also complained that there is ‘extremely slow progress’ in works on matters pertaining to the railways. Piyush Goyal responded to Congress president’s queries in a 5-page letter on October 18.
Going by the reply of Piyush Goyal, some issues which Rahul Gandhi raised were about the improvement of amenities for passengers at the railway station. Interestingly, this has already been solved. The infrastructure development on which Rahul Gandhi alleged of ‘extremely slow progress’ has been ‘fast tracked’. Taking a jibe at the Congress president, Piyush Goyal suggested “Visit the station and check before raising issues on the basis of misinformation.” Goyal also mentioned some specifics like doubling of railways line between Raebareli and Amethi made no progress till 2014 under the UPA government. “Now the execution of this work is in full swing and it is expected that the Amethi-Jais section shall be commissioned by March 2019 and the Jais-Raibareli section shall be commissioned by December 2019,” wrote Goyal in the reply.
The members of Nehru-Gandhi family were repeatedly re-elected to Lok Sabha from constituencies in Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister got elected from Phulpur constituency for three times but minimal development work had been carried out in the region since independence. Similarly, the further generations of family including prominent members like former party president Sonia Gandhi, the man who ran the Indira Gandhi government- Sanjay Gandhi, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi have been elected to Lok Sabha from Amethi and Raebareli constituencies. But majority of people in both the constituencies still live in extremely poor conditions and struggle for daily needs. The condition is so bad that Raebareli district has been named among 250 most backward districts of the country by Ministry of Panchayati Raj which now seems set to receive a grant under Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme. Sonia Gandhi practically ran the government during UPA era but this also could not bring development to the people of the constituency.
Jagdishpur in Amethi district used to be a prominent industrial town with public sector companies like SAIL, HAL and many more flourishing in the region. It is easy to ask PSUs to set up the offices in the high profile constituencies but on the other hand, it takes serious efforts and skills to bring private investment in any region and the members of Nehru-Gandhi family failed to do this for Amethi and Raebareli. Therefore, as the country moved on the path of privatisation, the industrial town of Jagdishpur declined slowly. The members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty were too busy in political manipulation to make efforts for bringing private investment.
Rahul Gandhi failed to develop his constituency in the period from 2004 to 2010 when his party was in power. Now when in opposition, he suddenly is concerned about the development of the region and has asked questions to the incumbent government that why railways is not working for the betterment in his constituency. Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi put questions without paying any visit to the concerned location. Though, the Congress party ruled the country for more than 6 decades with power centered in the hands of members of Nehru-Gandhi family, the country was not peddled on the path of development. Now, Rahul Gandhi, scion of dynasty and party president plays victim card to reap electoral benefits. However, the fact remains that he even lacks skills to reap political benefits and hence he has not hesitated in putting questions to railway minister without having known the ground reality.
