NEWS

The popularity of the BJP has declined: Congress

In a joint statement issued here today, Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar and Deputy Chief Whip Kewal Singh Pathania termed the meeting of the working committee of the BJP held in Una as a mere Gungaan (Praise) of the Prime Minister forgetting that the popularity of the BJP has declined and its claims of ‘Is Baar 400 Paar’ has been shown dust by the people of the country. The duo said that the fact was that the BJP had to take support from other national and regional parties to form the government at the Centre.

Countering the withdrawal of the benefits to the people, they stated that the BJP was forgetting their deeds wherein the Jai Ram government’s decision to halt subsidies for pesticides, neglected the interests of fruit growers and farmers.  Besides, the employees were denied their rightful financial benefits which was a clear exploitation of their rights denying them a dignified retired life and withdrawal of all benefits to them.

They said that the previous BJP government did not pay the arrears to state government employees instead they even asked employees to fight the election if they wanted pension benefits. It was the Congress government that restored the old pension scheme and released the pending dearness allowance ensuring a secure and dignified future for the government employees in the state. Today, the BJP leaders were pretending to be employee friendly but they have forgotten that the biggest movement of NPS employees in the State goes down in the annals of history as a black spot on BJP.

The BJP government will be remembered only for unleashing water cannons on the workers and crushing the movement with force, instead of meeting the agitating employees with their demand for OPS, just 100 meters away from the Vidhan Sabha. He will ever be remembered for crushing the rights of the employees and his statement that ’employees can fight the elections to get a pension.

They said during the last six months of the regime, the BJP government made reckless decisions to lure innocent people by opening unnecessary institutions. They spent recklessly organizing big rallies at government expense to show off their strength and provided no benefit to the people of the state. Due to their extravagance and to bring back the derailed economy of the state on track congress government was forced to make some difficult decisions.  Out of desperation and greed for power, they even try to topple the democratically elected government with their pathetic horse-trading tactics. 

It was during Jai Ram Thakur’s regime wherein malicious attempts to sell jobs to the favorites and deprive the eligible youth of jobs. Despite the corrupt practices revealed, the Jai Ram Government sheltered Staff Selection Commission Hamirpur, the recruitment agency, which had become a den of corruption.

To provide employment and self-employment to the youth, Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has started Rajiv Gandhi Self-Employment Start-up Scheme of Rs 680 crore, they said. Moreover, to catalyze youth participation in making Himachal a Green Energy State, a 50 percent subsidy provision was introduced for installing solar panels ranging from 100 to 500 kilowatts on private land. He said that building on this momentum, the Chief Minister has further expanded the initiative with the launch of the Rajiv Gandhi Natural Farming Start-up Scheme which aims to incentivize chemical-free farming practices.

The duo reminded the BJP to give shelter to corruption. They said that the BJP’s entanglement in the electoral bond scheme fraud exposes their blatant disregard for transparency and accountability, severely undermining the trust of the youth and the electorate alike. Similarly, the recent NEET scam has played with the future of lakhs of youth, on which BJP was trying to fold up the issue.

It does not seem well with the BJP at the center as well. Their decision on ‘Kanwad Yatra’ was being criticized by their alliance partners also which they termed a step to divide the Nation on the basis of religion.

The voters of Himachal Pradesh gave a clear mandate to the Congress to complete its five-year tenure and the Congress government has emerged stronger after by-poll elections increasing the strength of its MLA’s from 34 to 40 again.

Instead of questioning the present government on disaster management, the BJP leaders should rather ask the people who were provided relief, and the age old provisions of financial assistance in the relief manual were also changed and increased manifold to benefit the poor and those in need.

Mocking on the BJP’s audacity to accuse Congress of reckless spending, they said that the BJP’s own history of lavish, wasteful expenditures, indulging in luxury while ignoring the real needs of the people. It’s the height of hypocrisy for the BJP to criticize the Congress when its track record is marked by financial mismanagement and extravagance. The Congress remains committed to prudent financial management, supporting farmers, ensuring government employees’ financial stability, and addressing law and order issues, besides restoring the subsidies for the farmers and horticulturists leading to the welfare and prosperity of the people of the state.

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