‘Cong. shedding crocodile tears over farmers’ deaths’

Venkaiah unveils ‘report card’ of NDA’s three years in office

Welfare agenda: Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu speaking at a meeting in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears over the farmers’ deaths, and said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was known for using deaths of people as photo-ops to gain cheap publicity.

He was speaking at a meeting conducted here to mark the completion of three years in office by the BJP-led NDA Government to narrate the initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the slogan ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.’

Pointer to Digvijaya

In a scathing attack on the Congress, he said it did not make an issue when 25 farmers were killed in Madhya Pradesh when Digvijaya Singh was the Chief Minister.

On the other hand, Mr. Naidu said the death of even one farmer was a matter of serious concern for the NDA Government.

Mr. Naidu also took strong exception to the “suit boot ki sarkar” jibe by Mr. Rahul Gandhi at Mr. Modi, and shot back: “Does he (Mr. Gandhi) still believe that a tea vendor, who became Prime Minister by putting in hard work, has no right to wear a suit?”

Stating that despite being in power for most of the time after Independence, the Congress had failed to remove economic and regional disparities, he wondered why the Opposition parties were not cooperating when Mr. Modi was ushering in revolutionary changes.

He said that Mr. Modi was credited with introducing insurance to the poor with ₹2 lakh compensation in the event of death on payment of ₹1 premium per month. He was also the one who introduced banking for the poorest of the poor under Dhan-Jan Yojana and minimum pension of ₹1,000 for all. The credit for providing an opportunity for the ‘aam aadmi’ to travel by air on payment of ₹2,500 under Udan also went to Mr. Modi, he said.

Mr. Naidu said that during the ongoing celebrations, the NDA Government was taking the progress card to the doorstep of the people. Everyone had the right to know what the government had done so far and what it was planning to do to complete its unfinished agenda.

‘Lopsided policies’

Blaming the UPA Government for its lopsided policies, he said RBI Deputy Governor K.C. Chakrabarty had stated in a report that of the ₹4.94 lakh crore of bad loans disbursed by various banks, the UPA Government had written off loans to the tune of ₹1.41 lakh crore belonging to 10 big companies during 2007-13.

Visakhapatnam MP and BJP State president K. Haribabu presided.

Ministers Kamineni Srinivas and Ganta Srinivasa Rao, BJP Floor leader in Assembly P. Vishnukumar Raju, and TDP MLAs Palla Srinivasa Rao and P.G.V.R. Naidu were present on the occasion.