HYDERABAD: Senior Congress leader and former union minister S Jaipal Reddy on Wednesday accused the Modi govenment of ‘suffering from arrogance of power’ and ‘ignorance’ and alleged that it had failed in keeping its poll promises.
Speaking to reporters here, he wondered what had happened to the ‘tall claims’ of bringing back black money stashed abroad by Indians and questioned, “Modi had promised he would bring back black money and deposit `15 lakh in every citizen’s bank account. But, has he brought back, at least, `15 lakh to the country?”
The BJP maintains that Modi had never promised so and had merely said that if the entire black money stashed abroad by Indians was brought back, it would amount to approximately `15 lakh per person.
However, Jaipal Reddy stuck to the party line and went on the offensive against the Modi government, stating that it was only ‘harping on the past’ instead of strategising for the future. He further said the NDA government was spreading ‘canards’ against the previous UPA regime under which, he claimed, the country had witnessed the ‘fastest rate of reduction in poverty. “This is a public confession of chief economic advisor of the Modi government Arvind Subramanian. Also, he lamented that under the present government projects are not taking off,” he pointed out.
Under the UPA’s 10-year rule, the country had recorded 8.5 per cent growth rate — the highest in any decade after independence, he said, adding that even in agriculture, the UPA government had achieved an annual growth rate of 4.7 per cent. “But the BJP government brought it down to 1.1 per cent in the last one year,” he alleged.
Jaipal Reddy also said Modi had reduced Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to a “dummy” and quipped that BJP patriarch LK Advani was made a ‘mummy.’