PM wants youth to remain busy making social media reels so that they don't question govt: Rahul

Aurangabad/Gayaji, Nov 4 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the youth to remain busy in making social media reels, so that they stay distracted from pressing problems about education, health and employment.

Addressing back-to-back rallies in Bihar's Aurangabad and Gayaji, Gandhi charged the PM with promoting “addiction” to social media.

“Modi wants you to become addicted to making reels, Instagram, Facebook... This is the new high (‘nasha’) of the 21st century. He wants such a scenario because this would ensure that the youth remain distracted, and do not hold his government accountable for their problems about education, health and employment,” he alleged.

“The Prime Minister comes here and expects you to be grateful to him for access to cheap data. What he hides from you is that big telecom companies make money as you consume the data,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi also claimed that Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah “were indulging in 'vote chori' (vote theft) in Bihar, as they know the NDA would not win the assembly polls”.

The former Congress president also rebutted repeated assertions by the BJP and other NDA leaders that his party, in alliance with the RJD, would bring back “jungle raj” if voted to power in Bihar, and alleged that the PM was promoting lawlessness through vote theft.

“Whenever Modi comes here, he speaks about ‘jungle raj’. I will tell you what that is. ‘Jungle raj’ has been brought in Delhi, by Modi, who is enabling vote theft. He has done so in Maharashtra and Haryana. He wants to do the same in Bihar. But, I am sure that the people of Bihar will defeat his designs,” Gandhi asserted.

The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said vote theft is an “assault” on the Constitution, which, if not protected, the country will be “held to ransom by big business houses”.

The Constitution reflects the thinking of Ambedkar and Nehru, "a far cry from the line of thinking of the RSS and its ideologue Savarkar, which wants people to remain subservient", he said.

“I have also exposed before the entire country that the PM had tried to enact on Chhath Puja. Had some media outlet, unwittingly perhaps, not revealed that a puddle has been formed with clean water, Modi would have gone ahead and boasted that he has taken a dip in river Yamuna, which is too dirty for taking a bath,” he claimed.

“You all can gauge priorities of Modi by the fact that he can be seen rubbing shoulders with the well heeled, but never hugging and consoling a poor farmer,” the Congress leader said.

Gandhi said the INDIA bloc, if voted to power in Bihar, “will be a government of the extremely backward, socially marginalised and Dalits”.

He said it would transform the state into a manufacturing hub, ensure labels of ‘made-in-Bihar’ on clothes and mobile phones, “so that even China is forced to sit up and take note”.

The Rae Bareli MP also promised to revive the ancient glory of Bihar by setting up a state-of-the-art university at Nalanda, if the opposition bloc came to power.

Slamming the NDA government in the state, Gandhi accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of turning the youth of Bihar into labourers, and “destroying” all employment options for them.

“Nitish Kumar, who is like a remote-controlled device, working on the directions from those sitting in New Delhi, and Narendra Modi, gifted unemployment to the youth of Bihar,” he alleged.

“Question paper leaks are also a regular affair in Bihar, benefitting the financially rich students,” Gandhi added. PTI PKD NAC RBT