Jaipur, Nov 20 (IANS): Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge addressed public meetings in support of Congress candidates in Anupgarh and Hanumangarh where he targeted the Prime Minister on his old promises.
Kharge said that the Prime Minister was currently holding election meetings in Rajasthan, but he had stopped repeating old things.
“The Prime Minister had made election promises that he would bring black money deposited abroad and deposit Rs 15 lakh in every person's account. Has Rs 15 lakh been deposited in your account? When people said ‘no’, they say ‘you are lying. How can the Prime Minister lie?’ When I tell him something, he says that I call him the leader of liars,” Kharge complained.
“The PM had said that every year, we will provide employment to 2 crore people and 20 crore jobs should have been provided in 10 years, tell me where is it? Am I lying or the Prime Minister? He had talked about increasing and doubling the farmers’ income. Has your income doubled? It was said that farmers would be given free fertilizers. Are you getting it free? DAP is not available, urea is not available, but they said it,” he quipped.
Kharge added, “The Prime Minister said that when my mothers and sisters sit in front of the stove, I feel sad to see tears in their eyes. I will give them the cylinder for free. Leave aside giving free gas, in our time you have increased the cylinder price from Rs 450 to Rs 1,100. Now as elections are near, it has been reduced by Rs 200 to Rs 900 today. Increase on one side and decrease on the other. Who is taking money out of women's pockets? The government is taking it out. The cylinder which was earlier available for Rs 450 is now available for Rs 900-1100. So who is lying?”
“I had given a speech in Hyderabad, in which I had said that Modi Saheb lies and is the leader of liars. Then he objected and said that Kharge ji repeatedly calls me a leader of liars and also said that he took my father's name. I did not take his father's name because there is no use in talking about an elder who is not in politics. But he says that Kharge ji is not even sparing my father. Why would I quote his father? But he turns the matter upside down like this. I had said that Modi Saheb has told so many lies and Telangana CM Chandrashekhar Rao is his father in telling lies,” he said.
“To get sympathy, he says everywhere that I am poor. I used to sell tea at the railway station. That's right, you used to sell tea. My father was a labourer, I am the son of a labourer. I am not ashamed to say this. I have come into politics to work for the welfare of the people, not to lie, not to alienate people. Not to divide. In the name of religion, in the name of caste, you are dividing,” he said.
The party chief said that after Independence, the Congress had built big factories, big dams, big canals, medical colleges, engineering colleges, polytechnic colleges, IITs and many more.
“Modi ji, you should have set up a big factory in this country. We have built hundreds of factories like HMT, HAL, BEML, BHEL, lakhs of people work in them. But now Modiji is selling them one by one. Even today there are 30 lakh job vacancies in the government. There are vacancies in the Railways, there are vacancies in the paramilitary forces, there are vacancies in the police force, there are vacancies in Central Schools, why are they not recruiting? Because, if recruitment is done, then poor people will take advantage of reservation. How many people will benefit? They know that if these people have to be deprived of jobs then they should keep closing down government jobs one by one,” he added.
Kharge further said that the BJP has a washing machine that cleans tarnished people. “They repeatedly say that the Congress party has corrupt people, you have put ED, CBI behind all the people, but when these people went to them (BJP), they took them into the party and they got cleaned because Home Minister Amit Shah has a huge washing machine. When these tainted people go into that machine, they come out completely clean,” said Kharge.
He said the Congress party always took care of the poor and said that it would keep the promises it made.
“I would just like to say that we will keep the promises we have made. Earlier, too, whatever laws were brought under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, we provided employment to the poor by implementing them. We gave the NREGA scheme, Food Security Act and many health missions to the poor,” he added.
“The BJP's promise is always to destroy and divide people and ours is to work towards the poor. BJP always supported the rich, people like Adani-Ambani. The already rich people were made even richer. Those who were poor become poorer,” said Kharge.