The Congress’s attack on the BJP government over the alleged use of central agencies to harass opposition parties especially during polls came clear and sharp on Tuesday.
Addressing a campaign meeting at Thatipur in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge termed the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax (IT), Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the ‘panch pandavas’ of the BJP.
“But these are not the actual pandavas (of epic Mahabharata fame), but the ones that need to be defeated,” Kharge clarified.
He also referred to the recent ED actions in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, including an alleged attempt to implicate CM Bhupesh Baghel and the “harassment” of Congress candidates everywhere.
Gwalior is the hub of the crucial Gwalior-Chambal region in Madhya Pradesh where the Congress is pinning its hopes of a big win. The region includes 34 seats and was the focal point of the crossover of MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Congress to the BJP in 2020, leading to the collapse of then Kamal Nath government.
This was Kharge’s second visit to Madhya Pradesh in four days. In the evening, he was scheduled to address another poll meeting in capital Bhopal.
In his typical slight humorous style, Kharge launched an attack on PM Modi and the Chouhan-led BJP government in the state, saying that the only thing the long serving government has been able to do is to make Madhya Pradesh number one in corruption, malnutrition, violence against women, SC/ST people and children, decreasing income of farmers and unemployment.
He said that the list of scams in Madhya Pradesh was so long that it was difficult to remember all, but PM Modi never opened his mouth on these scams like the Vyapam Scam, the Mahakal corridor scam, nursing scam and others.
“The only time Modi sahib opens mouth is to abuse Congress, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi (former party presidents). He doesn’t want to speak on the scams, the 18,000 farmers’ suicide in 18 years, or the urination on tribal man’s face by a BJP leader,” Kharge said.
The veteran leader also took a dig at Modi and Chouhan saying that there is a competition between the two as to who is “more backward” and who was “poorer” in their early life.
“But the poor Modi ji does not pay any heed to problems of poor people; rather his entire attention is towards the richest like Adani and Ambani.”
Kharge further said that BJP keeps asking what Congress did during its long rule. “They should remember that the Congress worked to strengthen democracy and save the Constitution and that is the reason why Modi got a chance to become the prime minister and (Amit) Shah the Union home minister. These people just kept looking for jobs with British during the freedom struggle and now have the audacity to ask what Congress did.”
Training his guns on PM Modi repeatedly, Kharge said that the PM perpetually remained in vote-seeking mode and paid no need to actual problems of people. Also the BJP and Modi spoke incessant lies and made false promises like two crores jobs, Rs 15 lakh to every account, doubling of farmers’ income and others, he said.
“Did you get the jobs, did your income double, and did you get Rs 15 lakhs? You say no, Modi says he did all this. So either you are lying or Modi ji is lying. I will say he is lying. Then why do you vote for such people. You should vote for the hand symbol to change the situation in the state,” Kharge said.
The Congress chief also highlighted the party’s poll promises including Rs 1,500 monthly assistance to women, domestic cylinder for Rs 500, 100 units free electricity, 27 per cent quota for OBCs, old pension for government employees and so on and said: “We fulfill what we promise and if the local leaders fail on the promises, the party will initiate strict action on them.”