Thousands of crores spent by right-wing forces in bid to distort my image: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday stated that thousands of crores have been spent in trying to project his image in a way which is untruthful and wrong.

Addressing a press conference at Turuvekere town in Tumakuru district, Karnataka, he said, "The thing to understand is I always stand for certain ideals. That of course disturbs the BJP, RSS and other forces. Thousands of crores of media money or media energy has been spent in trying to shape me in a way which is just untruthful and wrong," he said.

"That machine is going to continue. It is a well oiled, financially rich machine. My truth is different. It is always different and people who care to look carefully will see what I stand for and what I work for," Rahul Gandhi explained.

"For me this yatra, of course, has a political element to it. For me, the main purpose of this yatra, I see in the political system, I don't just say, I say it across the board, a distance has developed between the political class and our citizens. The idea for me was to go right on the road and go close physically to our people," he said.

"When you are on the road, speaking to the people, the communication gets better. For me, Bharat Jodo Yatra has been a learning experience. I'm able to look at the advantages from this type of communication", he added.

Commenting on the charge by the BJP that all Congress leaders are out on bail, Rahul Gandhi maintained that "as we know, BJP uses and the RSS also uses India's institutions to attack India's political class. This is the tactic they are using and this is how they topple the government, pressurise and every single person understands this in detail," he says.

"The objective of Bharat Jodo Yatra is to bring India together. Objective from my perspective is not the 2024 elections. I am seeing India is being divided, violence is being spread in our society and this is damaging for our country," Rahul said.

Bharat Jodo Yatra is being taken up on three fundamental issues. First being the violence, the hatred BJP and RSS are spreading, the division of the country they are carrying out. "The second issue is the massive concentration of wealth they allow to happen. This is resulting in few people getting very very rich and which is resulting in the destruction of the backbone of Indian economy- the small and medium businesses and farmers. This is resulting in unemployment. India is heading towards an unemployment disaster. Third is the massive increase in prices," he stated.

With IANS inputs