New Delhi : The Congress on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of glossing over his government’s various “u-turns” at the BJP’s national executive meeting, saying that the ruling party had made “dodgy pronouncements” and its leadership was misleading people.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was still in “election campaign mode.”
“The PM again resorted to rhetorical promises devoid of any concrete action plan to fulfill them. Rather than answering the concrete questions that stare him in the face, he chose to gloss over his government’s embarrassing u-turns on various issues by again making high sounding but dodgy pronouncements like ‘antodaya hamara sankalp’, ‘panchamrit’, ‘chaturangi kranti’, ‘digital India’, ‘skill development’ and ‘Make in India’,” he said.
He said the BJP would have done well to outline its plan of action on “Antodaya”.
“Does Antodaya entail grabbing land from poor hapless and marginal farmers without their consent and give it away to industrialist friends who funded his campaign?” Surjewala asked.
Describing the new land law as “draconian”, he accused the NDA government of using rural housing as an “alibi” to amend the “farmer friendly Act” passed by the previous UPA government.
He also slammed Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her remarks that land acquisition had been made easier in some sectors related to power generation by diluting provisions relating to social impact assessment and consent.
Surjewala asked why the government was not coming up with “land use policy” and a “land management authority” as promised in the BJP manifesto.
“When, if ever, will the government implement its declared promise of fixing MSPs that are 50 percent more than the cost of a farmer’s input? Will the compensation paid to farmers who’ve suffered crop damage due to recent rains remain Rs.200/acre or will it be enhanced?” he asked, adding the BJP leadership was expert at “theatrics and verbal marketing” and was “continuously misleading” people on issues facing the country.