Kejriwal for referendum on free facilities to public

‘Determine if funds should be for family, friends or public’

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday demanded a countrywide referendum to determine whether public funds should be used “to give good schools, hospitals and roads to the aam aadmi” or to help “certain friends and families”.

The AAP convener, without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attacked him for seeking to create an impression that free facilities being given to the public would harm the country and cheat the taxpayers.

“If they say that giving free facilities to the public will harm the country, then what is the job of the government? Taxpayers aren’t cheated when they get good education and healthcare, they are cheated when politicians use their money to pay loans for their friends,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

“Today, the taxpayers are looking at the government and feeling cheated; they are seeing their money being spent on a few friends of the powerful. If loans worth ₹10 lakh crore were not waived by these people, then the country would not have been in such a deficit situation today and there would have been no need to impose GST on milk and curd,” he added.

Mr. Kejriwal demanded a referendum in the country on whether government money should be used for “family and friends” or for the public.

Targets Cong., BJP

He also trained his guns on both the Congress and the BJP blaming both for nepotism of one form or the other in addition to pitching the AAP’s model.

“There is a party which wants all the government money to be used for one family, while another one for its friends. At the same time, the third model is whether government money should be used to build good facilities, good schools, good hospitals and good roads for the aam aadmi of this country,” he said.