The BJP on Thursday took a jibe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his allegations against the Centre, saying he has given freebies a distorted turn to the debate and is resorting to lies and he should differentiate between welfare politics and “revadi politics”.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman led the BJP’s attack and several party leaders from Delhi – Adesh Gupta, Manoj Tiwari, Parvesh Sahib Verma – besides party MP KJ Alphons and spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia also slammed the Delhi Chief Minister for his remarks. BJP leaders said Kejriwal is “anti-people and only pro-political” and tries to divert people’s attention from the main problems.
Sitharaman said health and education facilities by the government should not be counted as freebies, no Indian government ever denied such basic services.
She said that by calling education and health freebies, Kejriwal was trying to inculcate a sense of anxiety and fear in the minds of the poor and there should be a genuine debate on the matter.
Former Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that Kejriwal has started lying and added that he has failed to fulfil his promises. He alleged that Kejriwal is not a man of his words.
“He has become a lying machine and he has no hesitation in it. He took a number of U-turns on the controversial statements made by him. He has apologized for his statements several times.
Despite this, he keeps on commenting like this. Whenever the central government makes plans, its aim is to serve the people for the overall development of them. Earlier, during the election campaign, Kejriwal had said ‘all water bills will be waived, electricity halved’. Did it happen to all the people of Delhi? This is called Revadi culture. He (Kejriwal) is not a man of his words,” Tiwari said.
KJ Alphons said that the Modi government has spent money on changing the lives of the poor. “Most of the money spent by the Modi government on building infrastructure for the poor, from housing to toilets, drinking water, insurance, medicine, you name it,” he said.
He said that political parties should seek votes on demonstration and not for revadi exchanges.
“It should be based on performance, but some governments, I mean, take the example of Delhi government, what it does, it gives free. Whose money is this? It is public money being used for political purposes which is unfair,” he said.
“What the government should do is demonstrate and then ask the people- look at this, we have done things for you, will you vote for us? I think the prime minister is saying exactly that,” Alphonse said.
BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia targeted Kejriwal over the allegations leveled against his ministerial colleague Satyendar Jain.
Kejriwal is asking where does the money go? It does not go to Satyendra Jain’s house, goes to give ration to 80 crore people, goes to get vaccines. Today is the day to catch the liars like Kejriwal.
