Electoral bonds 'world's biggest scam', ED 'extortion directorate': Rahul Gandhi
Hyderabad (PTI): In a scathing attack against the BJP-led Central government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the electoral bonds scheme was the "world's biggest scam" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "his people" in the election commission.
The Supreme Court had struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional in a ruling in February.
Addressing a rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad a day after the release of Congress's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, he termed the Enforcement Directorate as "Extortion Directorate".
"What earlier used to be called as Enforcement Directorate, has become Extortion Directorate today. BJP is running the world's biggest washing machine," he said.
"The country's most corrupt ministers and most corrupt leaders stand with Narendra Modi ji. Narendra Modi ji has his people in the Election Commission also," he said.
The list of electoral bonds scheme shows that a company is threatened by the CBI and then the company hands over crores of rupees to the BJP. The company then gets infrastructure projects worth crores of rupees, he alleged.
The bank accounts of Congress have been frozen, but the Congress does not fear the BJP, he said.
Congress has defeated BJP's "B team" (BRS) in Telangana and it is now going to defeat the "A team" in Delhi (BJP) in the coming elections, he said.
Further charging that the BJP wants to scrap the Constitution, he claimed that the Congress would never let that happen.
"This fight is for safeguarding the Constitution and democracy. Narendra Modi ji works for three-four per cent of people. He has the media, money, intelligence agencies, CBI , ED and everything. We have truth and people's love. Truth and people achieve victory," he said.
Attacking the previous BRS regime in Telangana over the phone-tapping allegations, Gandhi alleged that Modi and BJP is doing what the previous Chief Minister of Telangana (K Chandrasekhar Rao) did. Rao had put the police and other agencies to wrong use, he alleged.
Phones of thousands of people were tapped and the government data and computers were thrown into a river following the change of government, he said.
Gandhi also claimed that 30 farmers commit suicide in the country every day. He alleged that Modi has waived loans to the tune of Rs 16 lakh crore of the rich, while not even one rupee of farmers' loans was waived.
He also alleged that after Modi's government assumed office, crores of people became poor in the country.
Rahul Gandhi, who observed that the Congress government is implementing the promises made to people of Telangana before recent assembly polls, said he would rush to help the people of the state whenever they seek his help.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, his cabinet colleagues and other party leaders attended the rally.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
