Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

real poll issues vs the others

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You gave a sharp response to the Sam Pitroda comment last week. The issues of Prajwal Revanna, the unbelievab­le amounts of money recovered from aides of Jharkhand minister Alamgir, the issue of the mangalsutr­a, mandir-masjid have all been raked up. Don’t they distract from real poll issues?

Everyone knows that this person (Pitroda) is very close to the shahi (royal); first family of the Congress. Hence, if the Congress reaches close to power, then the approach of looking at inheritanc­e tax or appearance of Indians using a divisive and racist lens will be dangerous for the country. Hence, these issues have to be brought to the public and discussed.

They have reached the stage of giving reservatio­ns on the basis of faith and insulting the Constituti­on. Shouldn’t there be a discussion on this conspiracy to snatch reservatio­n from SCs, STs, OBCs and give it to others?

The Congress’s track record of vote bank politics, its prominence and its statements are in public. When they say that they will X-ray people’s property and redistribu­te it, what does it mean? Shouldn’t there be discussion on the dangers of such a mindset

Actually, I am surprised that the media has not delved deeply into the dangerous statements of Congress’s prince and the destructiv­e thoughts in its manifesto. Hence I had to raise these issues.

Look at their hypocrisy. On the one hand, the Congress’s prince is talking about X-raying ordinary people’s property, and on the other, trucks full of cash are being recovered from people close to their party. These issues are connected to the elections and I have to raise them.

Now that you have raised Prajwal Revanna’s issue, let me make it clear, we have zero tolerance for such issues. There is a need to take such allegation­s extremely seriously and there should be strict legal action against such criminals.

But tell me one thing, have these reprehensi­ble incidents happened now? These hapand pened over many years during this time, the Congress also tied up with Prajmeans wal Revanna’s party. This that they knew everything and they kept quiet for years. Now they are using these only for the elections, even though the state government is theirs and they could have acted against this earlier, but didn’t.

This shows their severe lack of commitment towards women’s safety and dignity. It is despicable that for the Congress, such an important issue is just a political game.

The Opposition may have failed to stitch together a national coalition but regional parties and the Congress have fielded joint candidates in more than 300 seats. Do you sense any challenge from this?

For many decades, India saw the problems arising from unstable government­s, where there was no common agenda other than power. The Congress was at the ceninstabi­lity. tre of all that

The scams of that era, the policy paralysis, surrenthe dering to terrorism, poor state of the economy are all fresh in the public’s mind.

Other than this, people are seeing that the INDI alliance has no common vision other than ‘Modi Hatao’. Day and night, they abuse each other in a way even opponents don’t. But they’re sharing a stage for opposing Modi. In contrast, for the last 10 years, the nation saw the benefits of a strong and stable government. In a rapchangin­g idly and challengin­g world, people know that India needs to be stable, secure and strong. Hence, I don’t think that the Congress and the INDI alliance can win people’s confidence, no matter how many seats they may contest.

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