Rahul Gandhi addresses Congress rally in Solan (Himachal Pradesh)

While addressing a well-attended rally in Solan (HP) as part of his Congress campaign in the poll bound Himachal Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi backed Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail and said that the decision will help farmers prosper by ensuring proper prices for their crops.  The AICC General Secretary also slammed BJP for obstructing every pro-poor policies of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. “We introduced Land Acquisition Bill. The intention behind the bill was to ensure that the poor farmers get adequate price for their land acquired. We had witnessed the bad experiences of the farmers in Uttar Pradesh. When we brought the Bill, the BJP stalled it in the Parliament standing committee. It is adopting the delaying tactics. Who is the loser? It is the poor farmers who will suffer. BJP tries to halt all our welfare programmes, whether it is right to food, right to education, right to information or MNREGA”.  “Since they lost elections in 2004 and 2009, they wanted to stall all the pro-poor policies of the Congress-led Central government. BJP is afraid that if the UPA Government is successful in passing the Bills like right to food and Land acquisition, it will not be able to win in 2014” he added.  Slamming BJP for their double stance on corruption, Rahul Gandhi said “BJP cries loud against corruption. But the biggest policy to tackle corruption, the Right to information, was brought by the Congress. There is no any other better policy to fight corruption like the RTI. Whenever we see corruption, we take strong action against the culprits. Even our ministers were sent to jail. But what BJP is doing? Here, the BJP government grabs the land of the poor farmers and sell it to rich people” Explaining that Congress also was in the opposition but never opposed any pro-poor polcies, the Congress MP said “We also were in opposition. When Kargil war broke out, we strongly stood by the then BJP government. The Congress never obstructed any pro-poor and pro-development policies”. Rahul Gandhi urged the voters to support Congress and elect Congress for a better and developed Himachal Pradesh.