GST, demonetisation used as weapons to clear roads for business tycoons: Rahul Gandhi

JAMMU: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday questioned the Centre's 'Make in India' project and alleged that GST and demonetisation were used as weapons to clear roads for business tycoons like Adani and Ambani.

Addressing an election rally in support of Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance candidates from 11 assembly segments of Jammu district, Gandhi accused the BJP of using central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Income Tax (IT) to browbeat opponents.

The Jammu district along with six other districts is going to polls in the third and final phase of Jammu and Kashmir elections on October 1.

"They (BJP) are talking about 'Make in India' and the defence industry but the reality is that all the contracts are going to people like Adani. An Israeli company is making weapons and Adani is pasting his label.

"An Israeli company is making drones but the label is of Adani. They say it is 'Made in India' but how so? These are Israeli weapons made by Adani and not made in India and this is the situation in the entire country," Gandhi said at the rally.

He alleged that the government is only working for billionaires like Adani and Ambani.

"The GST was a weapon to target Jammu entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses. The same way demonetisation was also used as a weapon.

"These are not policies but weapons and its target was to clear the roads for people like Adani and Ambani. The wrong GST implementation and demonetisation led to the destruction of lakhs of small businesses across the country," he said.

He said the airports, ports, roads, defence weapons and even the apple produced in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh are controlled by Adani.

"Earlier, the Kashmiri apple was going through Jammu in the rest of the country. Now it is in the hands of Adani who also handles apples from Himachal Pradesh. Same is the position in every industry.

"We have Adani tax on airports and Ambani's mobile tax. If you want to move on the road, the tax goes to Adani, cereal produce is handled by Adani, the tax on weapons and bullets used by the Army goes to Adani. How long this will go on?" he said.

He alleged that if an airport is being run by someone else, the government is using the CBI and ED to force him to hand it the facility to Adani.

He accused the BJP-led government of waiving loans worth over Rs 16 lakh crore to 25 business tycoons like Adani and Ambani but no such concession was granted to Jammu traders or farmers, the youth who have taken education loan and the patients who have spent hefty sums on their treatment.

'If you are taking a bank loan and fail to return the money, you are thrown in jail,' he said.

The former Congress president said they have made the "complicated GST is only meant for extortion".

"If you do anything wrong, the central agencies like ED, CBI, GST and Income Tax people will come and they will take money and leave. This is the system going on in the country under the BJP rule," he said.

He said both Adani and Ambani had a place in the country but "you (people of J&K) too deserve a place. It is not that you give everything to them and people can only watch”.

Referring to his interaction with a group of professionals on reaching Jammu earlier in the day, he said a girl told him that her dream to start a small aromatic business was dashed because the government failed to provide her the promised support.

Gandhi said the distressed girl does not want to run her business anymore.