NEW DELHI, Oct 19: The Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of raising the issue of revocation of Article 370 provisions in assembly poll campaign for electoral gains and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must tell the people that it was because of the Congress that Pakistan’s integral part split from it.
“Modi ji only remembers (Article) 370. He does not know when Pakistan split and who did it. It was we (Congress) who split Pakistan’s integral part from it… where were you (Modi) then?” senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal asked.
“Tell the people of Haryana that it was because of the Congress that Pakistan’s integral part was split from it. This happened under the Congress rule. Praise the Congress, but you don’t have the guts to do that,” he said. Training his guns at Modi, the Congress leader asked what has the BJP government under him done for implementation of Article 47 of the Constitution which states that raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living and improving public health is the duty of the state.
“You do not keep in mind your constitutional duties. Around 93 per cent children are not getting proper nutrition and your entire focus is on Article 370,” he said.
“You are doing this because of the Assembly polls… You are least bothered about the sufferings of the people,” Sibal said.
He also attacked Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over their remarks that Jammu and Kashmir lagged in development because of Article 370.
Citing poverty, infant mortality and unemployment rates, along with gross enrolment ratio in higher education and human development index rank of Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Sibal said, “These states did not have Article 370, but most of the corresponding figures of Jammu and Kashmir were way better than those states… why is that so?”
The poverty rate in Jammu and Kashmir is 10.35 per cent as opposed to 17.35 per cent in Maharashtra, 11.16 per cent in Haryana, 29.43 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 16.63 per cent in Gujarat and 31.65 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, he said.
“The unemployment rate in Jammu and Kashmir is 5.3 per cent while it is 28.7 per cent in Haryana,” he said.
Talking about the condition of farmers in Haryana and Maharashtra, Sibal claimed that 4,88,104 farmers and farm labourers committed suicide between 2013 and 2016 in Haryana while in Maharashtra 8,000 farmers ended their lives between 1999 to 2014.
He said the prime minister spoke about Rs 34,000 crore loan waiver for farmers, out of which only Rs 16,000 crore has been released and 50 lakh farmers are deprived of it.
Quoting data from international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Sibal said the economy is in crisis, and slammed the BJP government for “refusing to believe it”.
“Union minister Piyush Goyal says there is no economic crisis. He says (Nobel laureate) Abhijit Banerjee has left-leaning views. I want to ask are IMF, World Bank, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and other international forums also left-leaning?” he asked.
“Such is the condition of the economy that people do not have anything to eat. Doctors and postgraduates are looking for jobs as peons,” the Congress leader alleged.
“NRC and Article 370 are your (BJP’s) only agenda, but cannot provide relief to the poor, cannot generate employment. You are doing the politics of lies. You don’t bother about the country and its people,” he said.
Referring to data from a US Customs and Border Protection report, Sibal claimed that in the last three years the number of Indians arrested for trying to enter the US illegally has “tripled”.
This means a lot of poor Indians are leaving the country in search of employment opportunities, the Congress leader said, adding, “Modi ji please respond why is this happening as you have been running the country for the last five-and-half years.”
Referring to the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam, Sibal sought to know why no CBI or ED enquiry has been initiated against its 12 directors who, he alleged, are known to be close to the BJP.
“Had they been linked to Congress, they would have been in the custody of the CBI immediately. Not once did the PMC crisis found a mention in Modi’s speech,” the Congress leader alleged.
Claiming that four PMC Bank account holders have died so far, Sibal said, “Forget about Article 370, give us a ‘prime minister’s commitment’ that all depositors of PMC bank will get their money back immediately.”
Citing the latest GDP growth projections by international agencies, Sibal said, “Despite India’s GDP growth rate slipping to a six-year low of 5 per cent in the April-June quarter, the Modi government still insists that all is well with the country’s economy and that it remains among the fastest growing in the world.”
“But revised projections for India’s GDP growth rates this year alone indicate otherwise. In fact, some analysts have dropped growth projections for 2019-20 from 7.5 per cent all the way to just 6 per cent,” he said. (PTI)
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