While addressing Congress workers in Nuh in poll-bound Haryana, a traditional stronghold of the party that witnessed communal violence on July 31 last year, resulting in six deaths, including a mosque imam, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party’s government will “open mohabbat ki dukaan in every corner.”
“There is a wave for the Congress party, a storm is coming. And after this, it will be a government of the poor, a government of farmers. It will be a government of love. We will open mohabbat ki dukaan in every corner,” said Gandhi on the final day of campaigning.
He was sharing the stage with four local MLAs—Aftab Ahmed from Nuh, Mamman Khan from Ferozepur Jhirka, Mohammad Ilyas from Punhana, and Mohd Israil from Hathin.
Gandhi went on to say: “You fight our battle, get beaten by lathis, but you never back off. You challenge the hatred they spread with love. I get courage seeing your fearlessness.”
“In the jungle, you find the lion alone. In the Congress party, you will find the lions roaming together. They don’t challenge hate with hate; they do it with love. They have love, brotherhood, and respect in their hearts. Even if you threaten or beat them, they won’t challenge hatred with hatred. When I was on my yatra from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir, wherever the BJP opened nafrat ka bazaar, the Congress party opened mohabbat ki dukaan.”
“The most important thing is brotherhood. Wherever they go, the BJP and the RSS spread hatred, speaking about language, religion, and caste. We must stop this. Hindustan is not a nation of hatred, but of love, and you have shown this to all. We won’t let hatred win. We will let love win, brotherhood win, unity win. Only love will move the nation forward.”
“You have fought out a fight, you have faced their violence, heard their abuses, I thank you from my heart. I have also seen their violence and heard their abuses. You give me the courage. This is our sign, it means daro mat. We are not scared of anyone. I get power from your fearlessness. This will be the government of the poor and farmers.”
He also took India’s Constitution from his pocket and said: “The battle is about this. Whatever the poor, farmers, and laborers in this country have got is because of this book. The Constitution of Ambedkar, Gandhi, and yours. The BJP and RSS are bent on destroying it. If this goes, you won’t have anything—your land, water, wealth, everything will go. Our party is leading an ideological battle. The battle is between those destroying the Constitution and the Congress’s ideology, which is the ideology of the Constitution.”
On the unemployment crisis in Haryana, Gandhi said, “I went to the US, and a group of Haryana people wanted to meet me. They spoke of their hardships. In Dallas, I met 20-25 men who had fled Haryana due to a lack of employment. They said they sold their lands for Rs 50 lakh to escape. They travelled from Istanbul through Kazakhstan to South America, reaching the US via the jungles of Panama. They endured this because there was employment in the US. They told me, ‘The BJP government has destroyed Haryana, Rahul ji. If you need employment, you will not get it.’ (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ji speaks of vikas, but he doesn’t mention why Haryana tops the unemployment list.”
Haryana’s women will receive Rs 2,000 every month, the Congress leader promised.
He said: “All chhattis biradaris (36 communities/castes) will get employment in two lakh vacant posts. Every caste and every religion will receive it justly and equally.”
