Attacking the Congress for its “insensitiveness” towards people’s problems, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Textiles Smriti Irani said that while Bharatiya Janata Party leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party’s national president Amit Shah were worried about the future of the nation and its people, Congress leaders were worried more about their own future.
Addressing a public meeting here on Tuesday, she said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister of India if his party was voted to power in the next Lok Sabha elections.
“Mr. Gandhi recently said in Bengaluru that he would become the next Prime Minister if people voted the Congress to power in the next Lok Sabha elections. The man who is not confident of his own future is asking people to give their future to his hands. The man who doesn’t have a minute to spare for Vande Mataram, the man who had even justified the slogan of breaking India into pieces and the man who cannot correctly pronounce the name of Visvesvaraya is dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister,” she said adding that thinking of its own future and not the people’s had been Congress culture.
Asserting her party’s commitment for the welfare of common people, Ms. Irani said that Rahul Gandhi and Congress has always had problems whenever her government at the Centre introduced pro-people programmes.
“Whenever we talk of development and prosperity, we think of common people of the country. Nobody ever thought of saving poor women from the kitchen smoke. It was BJP-led Union government’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojan that did it. When 3.5 crore poor families get free cooking gas cylinders or when poor people get the benefits of Mudra Yojana, Mr. Gandhi feels the trouble,” she said. Terming Congress-led State government as “anti-farmer”, Ms. Irani said that 3,700 farmers would not have committed suicide in the last five years in the State had Chief Minister Siddaramaiah worked for farmers. “If you voted BJP to power in the State, I assure you that the Yeddyurappa government would take a decision to waive farm loans [borrowed from nationalised banks] up to ₹1 lakh in its first Cabinet meeting,” she said.
She said that Congress had enjoyed the power for decades pushing the common people towards poverty. “It [Congress] went on chanting the slogan of Garibi Hatao [remove poverty], but it never did anything to really eradicate poverty. You blessed us in 2014 Lok Sabha election and we started working for you. In order to remove the darkness of corruption in Karnataka, I appeal to you to vote for BJP in the Assembly elections,” she said.
