NEW DELHI, May 20: The Congress today lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre for its complete diplomatic failure as the country stands alone and isolated in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack. The party also observed that the US President Donald Trump had insulted India with his claims of mediating and enforcing the ceasefire.
Speaking at the ‘Samparne Sankalpa’ rally in Karnataka today, the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, PM Modi has been making frequent foreign trips for the last 11 years, but when India needed international support to expose Pakistan, no other country came forward to support us.
Kharge pointed out that Prime Minister Modi has made 151 foreign trips and visited 72 countries so far. “Out of these, he has visited the US 10 times. Yet, our country stands alone under the Modi government’s foreign policy”, he said, while asking, “is it the Prime Minister’s job to visit foreign countries and only pose for photos?”
He said, the IMF has provided a bailout loan of $1.4 billion to Pakistan, but nobody supported India’s position. Referring to the sudden ceasefire, he said, it was suddenly declared while our brave Armed Forces were conducting operations against terrorists.
Kharge alleged that the US President has insulted our country by saying, “I brokered” the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and repeated this, not less than 7 times.
The Congress president pointed out, the entire country was united in the tough action against terrorists, but Modi was trying to cover up the issue by not providing clarity to the people of the country regarding US President Trump’s statements, so far.
Speaking on the occasion, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress had promised five guarantees to the people of Karnataka before the assembly elections two years ago, but it has already fulfilled six.
Gandhi also drew comparisons between the development models of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said, while the Congress model is for the common people and the poor, the BJP’s model is for a select few wealthy people only.
Gandhi counted the five guarantees, which have been fulfilled by the Congress government. These include providing Rs 2,000 every month to the woman head of about one crore families, 200 units of free power to crores of families, providing 10 kgs of free ration to about four crore people every month, free bus travel to women and Rs 3,000 monthly stipend to educated youth.
Gandhi also referred to providing ownership rights to thousands of people across the state, who possessed land but did not have the ownership rights. He said, this was the sixth guarantee that the Congress government has fulfilled in Karnataka. He added that there are still about 50,000 families who do not have ownership rights on their land, but these rights will be provided very soon. He also announced that about 2,000 habitations across the state are being converted into revenue villages. Besides, he announced digitisation of the revenue records enabling people to get digital copies of the ownership documents.
The Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said that the Congress government ensures that money goes into the bank accounts of common people and it boosts the economy. He pointed out, once people have money, their spending power increases, which leads to higher demand for goods and increased production that ultimately leads to employment generation. Compared to that, he said, the BJP hands over the nation’s wealth to a select few billionaires who do not spend money in the country, but instead create assets abroad.
Rahul Gandhi said, in BJP’s model, there is no employment, whereas the Congress model leads to creation of jobs. He said, in BJP’s model, if somebody falls sick, he falls under the burden of debt, while under the Congress model, he gets free treatment. Similarly, he added, in education also, while the BJP promotes costly private education, the Congress model provides money for education.
