Mumbai, May 27 (NIE): All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Saturday said BJP’s ill-treatment of its alliance partners in the last four years had led to tremendous unrest within the NDA and that this had terrified the BJP.
“The BJP is terrified. There is unrest among NDA allies. It is an outcome of the arrogance of the BJP, which has ill-treated them for the last four years,” Singhvi said.
While indicating a regrouping of forces against the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections, Singhvi categorically ruled out any alliance with the Shiv Sena.
He was speaking to the media at an event where AICC and MPCC leaders questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s four years of governance, doling out statistics to show its “failure in important sectors”.
MPCC president Ashok Chavan too ruled out an alliance with the Sena. “In Maharashtra, we are willing to get all anti-BJP forces together. But the Congress will not have an alliance with the Sena due to ideological differences.” Citing the Karnataka assembly elections, Singhvi said, “West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and BSP president Mayawati had no stakes in the Karnataka polls but they also lent their support by talking to state leaders to unite secular forces against the BJP.”
“The present BJP celebrations can be equated to their India Shining campaign when India was actually burning,” Singhvi said, adding that “the four years of misrule amounts to betrayal of people’s trust by the Modi government and the ruling BJP”. On the agriculture sector, Singhvi said, “During the Congress government (2004-14), agriculture growth was 4.2 per cent. It has declined to 1.9 per cent. The prime minister talks about doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Experts believe at this growth rate that can be achieved by 2052. To achieve the target in 2022, agriculture growth rate should be 15 per cent.”
According to him, MNEREGA work days have come down from 45 days to 16 days and that the government had failed on its promise on Minimum Support Price (MSP). “Now, again a year ahead of polls, they are reiterating their commitment to give MSP…,” he said. “The promise of two-crore jobs is a pack of lies. The demonetisation has rendered 15 lakh jobless. There are 3.5 crore unemployed people in the country. Layoffs in the IT sector are massive across all the leading companies. The much talked about action against black money remains on paper. The 11 bank scams between 2014 and 2018, confined to eight persons, from Nirav Modi to Vijay Mallya, runs to Rs 61,000 crore,” Singhvi alleged.
He attributed the increase in petrol and diesel prices to increase in excise duties a dozen times. The party also released a audio-video clip titled ‘India Betrayed’, showing the “flip-flops” of the Modi government.