Jaya prefers to stay in her house as people suffer: Rahul

MADURAI: Taking on AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that she preferred to "stay within four walls" without bothering to visit the people or listen to their grievances during last year's devastating floods.
Attacking the Tamil Nadu chief minister over a host of issues, including unemployment, he alleged that her rule was marked by corruption and that industries had migrated to other states.
Addressing his maiden election rally in Madurai for the May 16 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu along with DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, he targeted Jayalalithaa over the unprecedented floods that hit parts of the state during last monsoon.
"Tamil Nadu does not need a government which is run by a person who stays within four walls and does not even have the decency to come out and see what has happened when the floods came to Chennai. I could come from Delhi to see what has happened in Tamil Nadu and to help, to give a hand to the poor people but the chief minister could not walk out of her house." Gandhi said.
He claimed that under the AIADMK regime, umemployment had risen. Lakhs of youth were unemployed and corruption had gone up "at every level".
Previously, factories and industries "used to come to Tamil Nadu, but now nobody is interested," he said, adding they it is understood that if anyone wants to open up industries in the state, "they will have to pay money" to people in the government.
Referring to a generation of leaders from 'Periyar' E V Ramasamy, Kamaraj, AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, he said such leaders went to the people, listened and learnt from them.
"I am confident Stalin also has these qualities. On the other side, we have the chief minister who is absolutely convinced that she does not need to meet anybody in Tamil Nadu," he said. "She is absolutely convinced that nobody in Tamil Nadu has anything to say to her from which she can learn something. She is convinced that there is only one wise person in Tamil Nadu and that is Jayalalithaaji."
Gandhi also spoke out in favour of prohibition. He recounted the travails of a girl 'Sathya' of Theni district, saying the teenager's father took to liqour and later died of alcoholism.
"It is ironic that her name is Sathya (truth), this is the truth of Tamil Nadu today. Liqour shops have gone from 1,800 to 6,800 in the last five years," he claimed as he promised to impose prohibition if the DMK-Congress alliance won the polls.
Attacking the AIADMK chief over freebies, he said Jayalalithaa had promised Rs 5,000 worth of mixies and other gadgets per family in 2011. "What she did not tell you is that her liqour policy will take Rs 60,000 from every single family in Tamil Nadu. She gave you mixies that did not work. After giving mixies that didn't work, she took Rs 60,0000 from every single one of you," he alleged.
"Tamil Nadu does not need the rule of one person who believes, she has every answer to every problem. It does not need a government that crushes dissent, that crushes opposition," he said.
On the growth front, he said the state has "become backward" in "many, many" areas. He claimed the state has the highest percentage of landless agricultural labourers and among Dalits, 90 per of them are landless and among poor households, 50 per cent owe their livelihood to manual labour.
He said the total debt of Tamil Nadu has "crossed Rs 4 lakh crore" that means every single family has Rs 2 lakh of debt. "This is not a type of state that Kamaraj ji, MGR ji, and Karunanidhi ji had imagined."
"We (DMK-Congress) have come together because we want to make Tamil Nadu the best performing state in the country. Not No 2, but No 1...this could not happen with Jayalalithaa ji and she would not accept this," he said.
He assured loan waiver for farmers, pensions of Rs 2000 for farmers above 60-year-old, focus on more power production, free KG to post graduate education, and "for our sisters who are most impacted by liqour problem in the state we will implement total prohibition."
He said, "I am confident, that our alliance will provide a corruption-free government in Tamil Nadu. We will build together, a state which the rest of the country can look forward and aspire to perform like it."