Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday stated that the way the BJP is running the country needs to change, as their policies have caused significant harm to small businesses.
Addressing a rally in support of Congress candidate from the Mandi seat, Vikramaditya Singh, Priyanka highlighted the negative impact of steps like demonetization and GST on small businesses in India.
“During the entire tenure of Modiji, the work of creating employment has almost come to a standstill. Our country is facing the highest unemployment in the last 45 years. 70 crore youth are unemployed. To remove this, the way BJP is running the country must be changed because their policies have caused huge losses to small businessmen. Everyone knows that demonetization and GST have caused damage to the tourism industry,” she said.
Priyanka asserted that if elected to power, the Congress party would work to strengthen small businesses, which are a major source of employment in the country. “We want that if our government comes to power at the Centre, we will strengthen the small and middle-class businesses. Our understanding is such that most of the employment is provided by these industries,” she added.
Targeting the BJP, Priyanka accused them of favoring big billionaires at the expense of small businesses. “Today, all the wealth of the country is slowly being given to a selected few billionaires. The country’s coal, mines, ports, airports, everything is being given to their friends. This causes a lot of loss to the country. Most of the cold storages in Himachal belong to Adani ji. What this means is that today Adani ji will decide what will be the price of your Apple. You have reduced the tax on apples coming from America and our farmers are paying GST for everything. Today all the agricultural equipment has become expensive,” she said.
Speaking on the Agniveer scheme, Priyanka expressed concerns for the youth of Himachal who join the army. “Many youths from Himachal join the army and protect us. But today Modi ji brings a scheme like Agniveer. If an Agniveer is killed in action, he will not get the status of a martyr. The martyr’s parents will not even get a pension.”
Voting for all four seats in Himachal will take place in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on June 1.
