‘Who would you blame now, Nehru or states or people’
NEW DELHI: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the current power crisis and asked whom would he blame for his failure on this front.
He asked whether PM Modi would blame former premier Jawaharlal Nehru, state governments or the people of the country for this power crisis.
"The prime minister's promises and intentions have always been disconnected. Modi ji, who will you blame for your failure in this power crisis? Nehru ji or states or people?" Gandhi asked in a tweet in Hindi. He also tagged a video showing past speeches of Prime Minister Modi promising in 2015 to make electricity available 24 hours across the country and claiming in 2017 that one no longer heard headlines of power crisis or coal crisis.
The video clip of nearly one minute highlights news headlines of the current power crisis with a businessman saying he can't even sleep after a day's labour.
With large parts of the country facing long power cuts, the opposition Congress had said on Friday the central government's misgovernance and mismanagement led to this "artificial" crisis in the scorching summer.
The party alleged that the Modi government was not providing logistical support for coal distribution to power plants across the country, leading to the crisis.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a swipe at the Centre over the issue of widespread power outages, saying the government has found the “perfect solution” to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes.
He also said the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their “monumental incompetence”.
Various states continued to reel under power crisis on Friday with soaring mercury pushing demand higher, as opposition parties blamed the Centre for coal shortage at thermal plants.
Attacking the government over the issue, Chidambaram said, “Abundant coal, large rail network, unutilised capacity in thermal plants. Yet, there is acute power shortage. Modi Government cannot be blamed. It is because of 60 years of Congress rule!”
“There is no incompetence in the Ministries of Coal, Railway or Power. The blame lies with past Congress ministers of the said departments!” he said.
“Government has found the perfect solution: cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes! Modi hai, mumkin hai,” the former Union minister said in a series of tweets.
Chidambaram said the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their ‘monumental incompetence’