PM distracting Goans by blaming Nehru: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) Rahul Gandhi has accused the Prime Minister of distracting the attention of Goans from the actual issues.

Rahul was responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark in which he "blamed Jawahar Lal Nehru for delay in liberation of Goa".

The Congress leader said, "Every party has a particular role, like I see my role as to ensure that Goa gets a government that represents its voice. The Prime Minister also has a role, he cannot come to you and say, I gave you jobs..I have fixed your problems, he can't say that to you, so he has to distract you, his role is to distract."

"His role is to take you away from your issues and distract you. Now the fact of the matter is that this is an issue that has come up before, academics and freedom fighters have commented on this. The sad fact is that the Prime Minister doesn't quite understand the history of those times. He doesn't understand in details what was going on post World War-II," he added.

Rahul also said that the party would look to rejuvenate the state's tourism sector and also restart the mining industry at the earliest.

"This time we are going to get a solid majority and we are going to act immediately to ensure that we have a government in Goa. We won't fall short. I think we'll be well above the majority mark with ease," Gandhi said.

To form government, victory over 21 seats is required in the 40-member state Legislative Assembly. In the last elections, in 2017, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party, but the delay in cobbling together the required numbers had resulted in the BJP forming a government in the coastal state.

He also said that the Congress would focus on turning Goa into an IT hub in order to address the issue of unemployment in the state.

"We propose to focus on transforming Goa into an IT and knowledge hub so that many young Goans can get jobs in the IT industry and get connected to the rest of the world," the Congress leader said.