India’s future dark under BJP: Cong

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

On the third anniversary of the NDA government today, the Congress accused the ruling BJP of comprehensive failures on agriculture and employment fronts and said the future of India was dark under the current dispensation.

“Under the BJP, the future of India is dark from the economic and social point of view. The country is witnessing strife all over,” Congress general secretary and former minister Kamal Nath said today.

Apart from Nath who spoke from Delhi, 18 Congress leaders addressed press conferences across India to “expose BJP’s politics of falsification, hyperbole and bravado”.

Congress described BJP’s three-year rule as “bhashan aur aashvaasan, yeh hai mera shasan”. Kamal Nath demanded a White Paper on BJP’s employment strategy saying it had no plan to prevent job disruptions being caused by IT revolution.

“Bank credit is at an all-time low. The atmosphere of trust required for investment is missing. There are no jobs. We want the government to bring out a White Paper on how it plans to create jobs. We need over three crore per year,” Nath said adding farm growth was down from an average of 4.3 per cent during the Congress-led UPA’s 10-year rule to 1.3 per cent in the three years of the NDA rule and government’s farm-insurance scheme was only benefiting insurers. “As many as 35 farmers kill themselves daily,” Nath said asking what the government was celebrating.

Asked why the BJP was winning popular support if it was doing as badly as the Congress was saying, party's media head Randeep Surjewala said: “Electoral success is not the sole indicator of a government’s performance. The UPA lost the 2014 poll after winning many state elections. It doesn’t take long for time to change.”

Nath personally conceded to “Congress shortcomings”, but added, “BJP celebrated its UP win in a way that it glossed over its losses in Goa and Manipur. The BJP has been losing vote shares since the 2014 poll. That’s not to say the Congress does not have shortcomings. We are putting things in order.” 

Nath, however, smiled when asked if he was being sent to election-bound MP as the state party chief.  After the conference, scores of Nath supporters from MP were heard raising slogans at the AICC office, seeking Nath’s appointment as the MP Congress chief. At present, Kamal Nath is the Haryana Congress general secretary.