AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal on Friday accused the Narendra Modi government of failing on all fronts and charged that the Swachh Bharat programme is a big scam.
“The Centre has spent Rs 12,000 crores on toilet construction as part of Swachh Bharat. But all the toilets that were said to have been constructed have vanished. An enquiry should be ordered into this issue...We (Congress) are ready to produce all evidence in this regard,” he told reporters who sought to know why there is no mention of any scam related to the Centre in a video clip released by the Congress to highlight failure of the Modi government.
The party screened a seven-minute video clip titled ‘3 saal, 30 Thikaddam’ (3 years, 30 gimmicks) at a media conference. The video showed how the Modi-led BJP failed to fulfil the promises it had made during the 2014 parliamentary polls.
Venugopal said youth have been disappointed by the Centre for its failure to create employment opportunities. Modi had promised to create two crore new jobs every year. But data from the Labour Ministry show that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015. “It is the lowest in the past seven years. Unemployment is at a five-year high. Even in the IT sector, most of the rating agencies predicted 40% job losses. The government has not taken any measure in this regard.”
Demonitisation of high-value notes is being projected as a surgical strike on black money. But, the government is not ready to disclose how much black money has been seized. The truth is that it was a surgical strike on the poor. The big black money holders are safe, and they easily managed to get their black money converted into white, he said.
The AICC general secretary said the saffron party has been trying to appease Dalits though incidents of atrocities against them are on the rise in all the BJP-ruled states. The government and the BJP are directly responsible for the growing intolerance in the country. The RSS is interfering in the administration and trying to spread its agenda of communal hatred, he charged.
Video on Modi govt’s ‘gimmicks’
The Congress on Friday came up with a video clip “3 saal, 30 Thikaddam” (3 years, 30 gimmicks) in its effort to project the three years of Narendra Modi government as a bundle of gimmicks. The seven-minute video in Hindi highlights ‘unkept promises’ of the Modi government such as creation of two crore jobs every year, bringing back black money, digital India initiative and the Ganga cleaning project. The party has made the clip by piecing together video and audio clippings of various Hindi news channels. The video clipping was screened at a media conference at the KPCC office on Queen’s Road here.
The video also highlights how Modi and his government took a U-turn as far as implementation of programmes and schemes launched by the previous Congress-led UPA government. For instance, it showed a video clip wherein Modi as the Gujarat Chief Minister had stated that GST cannot be successful. In another clip, Modi as the Prime Minister claims that GST will be a game-changer initiative. Similarly, Modi’s contradictory statements on Aadhaar are featured in the video. The government’s ‘failure’ on issues such as internal security and preventing farmers’ suicide are highlights of the video. It also shows people expressing their disappointment over the performance of the Modi government.
Published 26 May 2017, 20:32 IST