Congress General Secretary, Shri Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday, summoned Salman, a 20 year old boy in Aligarh and asked him his name. Shri Gandhi asked Salman what he did and the boy said that he ran a tea stall.

“Salman sells tea here and works hard to make a living but the people in Lucknow usurp the money that rightly belongs to him. His labour and his dignity do not get any respect from these leaders,” Shri Rahul Gandhi said.   Shri Gandhi said that Mulayam Singh is promising free electricity and then he asked Salman whether he would get free electricity. The boy replied that he does not get electricity at all.

Shri Gandhi then asked Salman if he had ever had a dialogue with any leader. Salman said that no leader had ever spoken to him or visited the place he stays in.   The Congress leader then said that the drive, the honesty and the knowledge that people like Salman have, not a single leader in Lucknow could boast of having. “We need to untie the hands of young men like Salman and I am here to help them in changing the future of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Shri Gandhi said that in the past 22 years, BJP, SP and BSP had ruled over the state and asked the people if UP had progressed. The crowd responded with a ‘No’.   He said that in 2004 when the Congress formed government at the centre, it had promised that it would be a government for the common man, for people belonging to all religions and castes.

“We spoke to the common man and launched MNREGA, NRHM, RTI, RTE, loan waiver scheme for farmers, weavers’ package that gives Rs. 2 lakh as loan, subsidy on thread and   a weavers’ credit card. The weavers wanted that the money should go directly into their accounts and we made arrangements for this too,” he said.

Shri Gandhi asked the people to visit states like Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra and other Congress ruled states to see the kind of progress they have made. You can see the progress, the development there but in UP, people only talk of development and disappear when the time comes to work on it,” he said.

Shri Gandhi said that the hopes and aspirations of the people of UP had been trampled upon for long and it was now time to bring about a change. He said that the responsibility for this lay on the shoulders of the youth who are the future of the country.

“The day your hands get untied, people will see how this state progresses. I am here with you and will not move until UP begins to change,” he said.

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