Cong’s character is to mislead public for votes: Sitharaman
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday slammed the previous Congress government in Rajasthan for making false promises and misleading people just to grab power and then forgetting its promises to the people.
Addressing a press conference in Jaipur ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Sitharaman said, “The Congress party’s character is that it makes poll promises, misleads the public just to get votes… once it comes to power, it forgets its promises.”
“In Rajasthan, the Congress government tried to implement Old Pension Scheme … the Himachal (Pradesh) government also copied and made a promise of OPS and won the elections… after implementation in Rajasthan, chief minister Ashok Gehlot asked the Centre to return funds of employees that went to the central pool… I had said then that the funds cannot be returned... that money belongs to workers and not to the government… they took the decision to shift to OPS in a hurried manner.”
Sitharaman added that in the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, the party has not even mentioned OPS. She said the former finance minister P Chidambaram had said that the Centre has formed a committee and “we will wait
for the report as it will be premature to talk on it now”.
“If they think it is premature now then when the Gehlot government shifted to OPS, why did they not suggest to them at that time ...that it was premature? People should not forget the poor governance, corruption and scams the Gehlot government.”
Asked about the future of OPS in Rajasthan, she said “The Congress brought in OPS and they should answer. BJP government has nothing to do with it… Congress left people stranded and they should answer now.”
Sitharaman also spoke on the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project, blaming the Gehlot government for stalling the
project while the BJP government got the project passed as soon as it came to power. “The previous chief minister was reluctant and deliberately stalled the project for five years.”
Addressing the row over electoral bonds, the finance minister said that it was a way of bringing transparency. “Before electoral bonds there was no framework to monitor who gave cash, gold or property… but through electoral bonds all the donations that the parties took were reflected in their bank accounts.” She said that the opposition’s claim of electoral bonds being a scam was just a “political twist” by them.
On allegations of increase in
inflation, she said, “The BJP government has curbed inflation which has stayed at around 6% and it has not risen beyond the tolerance band.”
She said: “Between 2004 and 2014, the food inflation was in double digits around 12%. Today, the retail inflation is less than 4%”. She stressed the importance of re- electing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the state’s progress.Sitharaman urged the voters of Rajasthan not to support the Congress party as it is ‘ corrupt’. “Don’t come back, this was the slogan by the people of the state that’s why their government lost power... I request all the voters of the state that don’t vote for the corrupt Congress party... PM Modi has to be made the PM again for the development of the state,” she said. She accused the Congress party of raising public issues, only to forget them once in power.
Hitting out at the Union minister, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said that the party’s stand was clear on the issues.
“We implemented the OPS in Rajasthan. Then we promised OPS in Himachal Pradesh and implemented it there too. Our stand is clear. It is the BJP which should clear its stand whether they will give OPS or not.”
On ERCP, Chaturvedi said the Congress government “sanctioned funds and began work despite a financial crisis brought about by the Covid pandemic”. “It is the PM who did not fulfil his promise of making ERCP a national project and the BJP should answer on that,” he said.
In 2014 BJP won all 25 parliamentary seats in the state. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won 24 out of 25 seats in the state, while Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) secured the remaining one seat.The 25 parliamentary constituencies of Rajasthan will go to the polls in two phases. In Phase 1 of polling in the state on April 19, which is also the opening phase of the seven-phased elections, voting will be conducted for 12 seats. The remaining 13 seats in the state will be contested in the second phase on April 26.