Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh today visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Loksabha constituency here in "search of the developmental works" and claimed "nothing has changed at the ground level".
"Nothing has changed in Varanasi at the ground level during the last two years. The PM has not carried out any new work in the city since he was chosen as Member of Parliament from this temple town.
"I roamed various places in the city and found the same potholed and dug up roads everywhere. Even Modi's much hyped 'Swachh Bharat' is a complete failure here. There is no change at the Assi ghat and other ghats of this city, no cleaning work of Ganga taking place as promised by Modi and all the city's sewage flow directly in the river," Singh said.
The Congress leader claimed that the "works being carried out over the past several years, even before he (PM) was chosen as MP of Varanasi, are still going on at the same snail's pace....,".
Modi promised to make Varanasi a city of international standard. He claimed to bring the city at par with Japan's Kyoto city but here at the ground level nothing has changed and no developmental work had taken place in the last two years, he said.
Singh asked Modi to "leave aside making Varanasi an international standard city, he should first ensure carrying out the previous works that are hanging for years."
"If he carries out those previous works which are going on at snail's pace, the city would witness much development," he said.
The former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh showed an eight-and-a-half minute video clip highlighting the failures of the NDA government during the last two years.
The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has till date only repackaged the schemes of the previous UPA government and projected them as their own by giving them new names, he said.
The Congress leader also slammed the last year's incident of alleged lathi charge by police on seers, sadhus and local people at Godowalia in the city, where they were protesting against an order by Allahabad High Court banning the immersion of Ganesha idol in Ganga.
He said the incident "was highly condemnable" but the PM and his party, who are staunch supporters of Hindutva, had not issued any statement or tweeted in this regard, whereas Moditweets oneven small matters, he said.
For the violence that had taken place during the protest march against the lathicharge, no BJP MLA who were part of the procession were named but the Akhlish Yadav-led state government in a "secret pact" with Modi falsely implicated Congress MLAAjai Rai as a conspirator and even slapped NSA onhim. The Allahabad High Court, however, recently quashed the charges terming it as illegal," Singh said.
Rai was Congress candidate against Modi in the 2014 LS poll.
Singh defended the UPA government against a slew of
corruption charges, and accused the NDA government of suppressing the RTI act, a powerful tool against corruption in the hands of common people that was conferred by the Congress government to countrymen.
Singh said the Congress party will work like a "chowkidar" (watchman) and force the ruling dispensation to fulfill the promises they had made during the Loksabha election.
He also dismissed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's allegations of a website report leveling charges against Congress leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi, in the AgustaWestland issue.
The claims are based on a report which is not authentic. The speech (by Swamy) was given to(impress his partymen) so that he could be made the next finance minister replacing Arun Jaitley, Singh added.
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On the raging debate over various political parties declaring their respective prime ministerial candidates, the senior Congress leader felt that there was nothing wrong in the exercise as every party was within their rights to do so.
"What is wrong if political parties so decide to declare their prime ministerial candidates?...Let them do so," he said in a reply to a question on the JD(U) declaring its national president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial material for the next general elections.
Asked if the declaration of so many prime ministerial candidates by the secular parties will affect Rahul Gandhi's prospects, Singh said Gandhi remained his party's leader.
On MNS president Raj Thackeray opposing the release of 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' starring a Pakistani actor, Singh lashed out at the leader for meddling in the matter, saying that the said Pakistani actor was granted visa by the Indian government.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister should not have allowed Raj Thackeray to browbeat or blackmail the producers of the film over its release, the Congress leader added.
