Raichur: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressed a huge election rally at Karnataka’s raichur and took on BJP by attacking its double stance on women empowerment. He also mocked that BJP which he also termed as ‘Bellary Janata Party’, is good at just marketing. “Their (BJP’s) model is to make huge balloons, fill it with the air of Gujarat Model or India Shining or Karnataka Model and send up. BJP is expert in marketing. And if they win elections they run a government for a selected group like Reddys and loot the people. It tried this model and failed in Karnataka” said Rahul Gandhi.

1. Camp: Raichur, Karnataka
Date: 7th April, 2014
Time: 5 30 pm
Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka attacks BJP on women empowerment, corruption
Raichur: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressed a huge election rally at Karnataka’s raichur and took on BJP by
attacking its double stance on women empowerment. He also mocked that BJP which he also termed as ‘Bellary Janata Party’, is
good at just marketing.
“Their (BJP’s) model is to make huge balloons, fill it with the air of Gujarat Model or India Shining or Karnataka Model and send
up. BJP is expert in marketing. And if they win elections they run a government for a selected group like Reddys and loot the
people. It tried this model and failed in Karnataka” said Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi alluded to the snooping scandal under Modi government in Gujarat and said police in Gujarat is used to chasing
women and tapping their phones and on the other hand the BJP puts up posters saying give strength to women. “Few times
back, I had seen a poster of the ‘India Shining’ people with the promise of women empowerment. They talk about women
empowerment but its cadres do moral policing, beat up women in Bangalore. Further you must have heard about one of BJP’s
former ministers Mr. Hallappa, who was accused of rape. There were also reports of BJP MLAs watching porn through mobiles at
Assembly. How the women of India could feel safe under BJP and Modi's so-called Gujarat model when in Gujarat, policemen
are sent behind women, women's phones are tapped by policemen. On one side BJP government taps the phones of women, on
the other side they put posters of women empowerment!” he argued.
Praising the state government, the party vice president continued, “The present Congress government in Karnataka launched
several pro-poor schemes in the past ten months. By its Anna Bhagya Yojana, every poor family gets 30 kg rice at Rs. 1 per kg.
Under Ksheer Bhagya Yojana, about one crore kids get free milk. We work for the welfare of farmers, poor and downtrodden”.
Rahul Gandhi also took at a dig at BJP’s internal rifts and said, “Earlier, I had promised you regarding Article 371J. I had assured
you that the Bill related to this will be passed. The senior leader of BJP Sh. Advani – sorry, he was a senior leader once but not
now. BJP has cut him short now- had said that Article 371J will cut the nation into pieces. We passed it but nothing happened to
our country” and asserted, “Congress, it’s PM and party President, deliver on our promised. Once we say something, we put in
our sincere efforts to accomplish it”.
“BJP can never empower you and they can never respect you. They never give respects to the women who constitute 50% of our
constitution, either” said the Congress leader. “Congress never runs government for any particular caste or religion. It treats
everyone equally and works for entire people, without any discrimination. We do not need any other model. Karnataka has its

2. own model and it is working fine. It is the model for the development of the poor. Congress politics is the politics of the people.
The knowledge is with the people, we realise it” said the Congress leader striking a chord with the huge crowd.
“Unlike BJP, We respect you. That is the difference between Congress and BJP...Congress will always fight for you. We will not
fight for just a handful of people. India can never shine till every house in our country shines. We believe in inclusive growth”
concluded Rahul Gandhi.
Full text of the speech by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at Raichur in Karnataka
Under earlier BJP regime in Karnataka, the funds meant for welfare of the people and development of the state went to the
pockets of some of its leaders. I want to talk some names of the leaders of the Karnataka shining party (BJP). 4 BJP MLAs and
two ministers went to jail for graft. Janardan Reddy, Anand Singh, Nagendra, Suresh Babu - the leaders of the party which
propagate Karnataka model, Gujarat model and India Shining, went to jail. I just want to explain BJP’s model of governance.
Their model is to make huge balloons, fill it with the air of Gujarat Model or India Shining or Karnataka Model and send up. BJP is
expert in marketing. And if they win elections they run a government for a selected group like Reddys and loot the people. It
tried this model and failed in Karnataka.
BJP tried to do the same at the Centre in 2004. But people did not let the Bellary Janata Party or the perpetuators of India
Shining to rule. Congress formed the government at the Centre. We formed a government of aam aadmi. In the past ten years of
UPA government rule, we could lift 15 crore people from poverty. This historical achievement is the first time in our history. It
was not a simple task. It was because of our right based approach of giving people their rights in jobs, food, information and
education. We provided free food for millions; the information which was confined to the closed rooms of administration
started coming out after the enactment of RTI act. We installed CCTV cameras in all government offices to ensure transparency.
Lots of corruption cases came out.
The present Congress government in Karnataka launched several pro-poor schemes in the past ten months. By its Anna Bhagya
Yojana, every poor family gets 30 kg rice at Rs. 1 per kg. Under Ksheer Bhagya Yojana, about one crore kids get free milk. We
work for the welfare of farmers, poor and downtrodden.
We waived off loans worth Rs 70000 crore of the poor farmers; opened the doors of the banks for them. When we were
initiating these, the BJP tried to block it by saying that we were wasting money. But we were determined and went on to
implement these schemes. Let BJP oppose us but we will continue to work for the welfare and upliftment of the poor, farmers
and weak.
We fought the rights of the farmers in Bhatta-Parsaul and other places. When a rich person’s land is acquired he gets adequate
price for it but this is the case with the poor. Their lands were snatched away without giving proper compensation. We went to
them, interacted the, realised their difficulties and fought for their rights. We implemented the revised Land Acquisition law by

3. which every poor gets 4 times the market price when their lands are acquired. But the BJP had blocked this Bill for about two
years. But finally we won the battle and farmers now can avail the benefits.
Earlier, I had promised you regarding Article 371J. I had assured you that the Bill related to this will be passed. The senior leader
of BJP Sh. Advani – sorry, he was a senior leader once but not now. BJP has cut him short now- had said that Article 371J will cut
the nation into pieces. We passed it but nothing happened to our country. You are benefitted by way of education, job and
development. Congress, its PM and party President, deliver on our promised. Once we say something, we put in our sincere
efforts to accomplish it.
The UPA government sanctioned Rs 5500 crore worth irrigation project – Upper Krishna project – for the state for the benefits of
the farmers and the poor. The Gulbarga-Raichur-Bangalore National Highway will improve the connectivity here.
As I had said earlier, UPA government could take 15 crore people out of poverty. Now a new class of people has been created,
those are above poverty line but below the middle class. These are the street vendors, carpenters, security guards, truck drivers,
plumbers- those people who run this country. There are 70 cr people who fall in this category. Our entire focus is to take this 70
cr people to the middle class in the next 5 years. We want to open the doors of education and health care systems for them. We
want to give them all their children opportunity for higher education to make their dreams come true.
We are going to give them two new rights. Like right to food, right to job now we plan to give them right to healthcare by giving
free treatment and medicines and a right to shelter. The new industrial corridors – Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai, Delhi-
Kolkata- will generate more jobs for our youth. We will have all modern infrastructures in that corridor. Today China is the
manufacturing capital of the world. We want India to replace China in the future. We want all the watches, cameras today made
in China to be made in India, in Karnataka. Thousands of industries that are going to come up in these corridors will be the
backbone of India. About 10 crore jobs will be generated once we complete this. We also will provide loans to crores of people
to establish businesses.
Women are the pillars of the nation. We want, therefore, want to empower our women more. If India to become superpower,
we must make our women superpower. We will pass the women reservation bill pending in Parliament. We gave 50% women
reservation in local bodies now we want adequate women representation in Parliament and Assemblies. It is the BJP which has
blocked the women reservation Bill. I assure you that Congress will get the bill passed. We will open new colleges and
universities for women. We increased the number of subsidized LPG cylinders to 12. We will open 2000 dedicated women police
stations.
Few times back, I had seen a poster of the ‘India Shining’ people with the promise of women empowerment. They talk about
women empowerment but its cadres do moral policing, beat up women in Bangalore. Further you must have heard about one of
BJP’s former ministers Mr. Hallappa, who was accused of rape. There were also reports of BJP MLAs watching porn through
mobiles at Assembly. How the women of India could feel safe under BJP and Modi's so-called Gujarat model when in Gujarat,

4. policemen are sent behind women, women's phones are tapped by policemen. On one side BJP government taps the phones of
women; on the other side they put posters of women empowerment!
BJP can never empower you and they can never respect you. They never give respects to the women who constitute 50% of our
constitution, either.
Congress never runs government for any particular caste or religion. It treats everyone equally and works for entire people,
without any discrimination. We do not need any other model. Karnataka has its own model and it is working fine. It is the model
for the development of the poor. Congress politics is the politics of the people. The knowledge is with the people, we realise it.
BJP wants tto make its leader a chowkeedar (watchman); But Congress wants to make every citizen chowkeedars. A single
watchman can rob you too. We want our people become chowkeedars of our country.
Unlike BJP, We respect you. That is the difference between Congress and BJP.
Congress will always fight for you. We will not fight for just a handful of people. India can never shine till every house in our
country shines. We believe in inclusive growth.
Thank you.
Jai Hind.