Ujjain: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made “mistakes” on Jammu and Kashmir, as a result of which the state is “on fire.”
Addressing a public meeting here in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi also alleged that the ‘One-Rank, One-Pension’ (OROP) scheme has not been implemented so far and the Prime Minister was speaking “lies” on the issue.
He said a couple of days back, a delegation of ex- servicemen met him and said they had trusted Modi over OROP but were “disappointed” now. The prime minister “claims that OROP has been implemented. He speaks lies. OROP has not been implemented so far. Modi ji claims but ex-servicemen said it was not executed,” the Congress leader said.
Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, he said the state is “on fire” right now, apparently referring to the latest killings in the state by the terrorists. The Modi government “opened the doors of J&K for terrorists. No politician was martyred in J&K but army men are laying their lives there because of Narendra Modi’s mistakes,” Gandhi said.
“The prime minister talks about surgical strike, army, navy but doesn’t talk about army men. He makes claims. At least, tell us what you did about those who carried out the surgical strike (of September 2016),” he said. Taking a jibe at Modi for his remark that “selling of pakoda is also a job,” Gandhi said, “If you fry pakodas, then BJP will take away the money of the oil. Moreover, it will eat fried pakodas.”
He also alleged that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had allowed indebted liquor baron Vijay Mallya escape from the country. “Mallya had a meeting for 40 minutes with Arun Jaitley before leaving the country. FM has the government agencies under him and he could have informed him,” Gandhi said.
Jaitley has already rubbished the allegations. Continuing his tirade against the prime minister, Gandhi accused him of allowing Mallya as well as businessmen Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi flee with the “country’s money.” He was referring to the PNB banking fraud allegedly involving Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and some others.
Turning to the issues related to Madhya Pradesh where the Congress is seeking to wrest power, Gandhi alleged that the BJP government, in the last 15 years, has done nothing for the people and indulged in “massive corruption” like Vyapam and e-tendering scam among others.
He said the state government has spent Rs 400 crore to clean Kshipra river, but nothing happened. To justify his point, Gandhi displayed to the gathering a bottle containing dirty water, which he said had been collected from the holy river. Referring to the closed textile mills in Ujjain, he said even Bangladesh has surpassed India in the textile sector.
He promised that if the Congress comes to power in the state, these mills will be revived for providing employment to the local youth. Earlier, addressing the gathering, State Congress Campaign Committee chief Jyotiradittya Scindia alleged rampant corruption by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of the state in organising the Simhastha Kumbh in 2016 at Ujjain.