PM Gave Make in India Slogan, Country Flooded With Chinese Products: Rahul in Tamil Nadu

Speaking in Salem, Rahul said his party's poll manifesto had a better choice for entrepreneurs wherein they would take permission only after their business was established.

Salem (Tamil Nadu): While Prime Minister Narendra Modi swears by ‘Make in India’ campaign, the country is flooded with Chinese products, said Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday while addressing a rally here. (Catch Lok Sabha Elections Action Here)

He said, “He (PM Modi) gave you an empty slogan of Make in India but wherever we look, we see Made in China products.” He added that now he wanted to see ‘real made in India’ and ‘real made in Tamil Nadu’.

Rahul spoke about the high rate of unemployment in the country and alleged that the PM had hurt them in the past five years, giving “huge amounts of money from the banks to the richest people but not to them”.

“Under Make in India, if a young Tamil entrepreneur wants to start a business he has to knock on the doors of different government offices to pay bribes,” adding that by the time he got all the required permission, his business would already have failed.

In contrast, he said, his party’s poll manifesto talks of a new idea. “When you want to start a new business you will not have to take permission from any government department for three years. Take permission once your business is established,” he offered by way of explanation.

Sharpening his attack on the PM, Rahul said that when farmers from Tamil Nadu went all the way to Delhi to protest at Jantar Mantar, PM Modi did not speak to them. “They have to take off their clothes and still, he does not pay any attention. He does not have the decency to call them and ask them why they were upset,” he alleged.

Yet, he said, PM Modi “hugged every single corrupt businessman”.

On his pet peeve, the Good and Services Tax (GST) which he calls ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, Rahul said it comprised five different taxes and a tax rate of 28 per cent wherein “even weavers had to pay tax if they had to buy thread or material”.

He promised that the Congress will remove GST, replacing it with a simpler tax, if it was voted to power