Congress guarantees a hoax, will bankrupt state: PM Modi at Ajmer rally

In his public rally in Rajasthan’s Ajmer on Wednesday — the second in the state in the last 21 days — Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “priority to the deprived” was the hallmark of nine years of his government. The PM slammed the Congress, and others, for their “selfish protest” in boycotting the new Parliament building’s inauguration and termed the Congress’ “new formula” of “guarantees” a hoax that, if implemented, would bankrupt the state and the country.

While the public meeting was to mark nine years of the Modi government at the Centre, the PM spoke of the Rajasthan assembly elections, which are six months away, reminding people how the Congress “betrayed” them by not fulfilling the “guarantees” it made to them in 2018. Modi appealed to the people to be “wary” of the Congress, its promises and politics that lacked vision.

The PM spoke about the Ajmer-Delhi Cantt Vande Bharat Express that he flagged off in April and the employment opportunities that have and will accrue to Rajasthan’s youth because of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. Modi said international experts have noted that India was “very close to ending extreme poverty”.

The Ajmer rally was the PM’s second public meeting since May 10, when he addressed one in Rajasthan's Abu Road, the day Karnataka voted. The Congress won in Rajasthan in November-December 2018 assembly elections, but the BJP swept its 25 Lok Sabha seats, including one that ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s Hanuman Beniwal won, in the 2019 general elections five months later. Beniwal parted ways with the BJP during the anti-farm laws agitation. The BJP has drawn an elaborate month-long plan to mark the Modi government’s nine years, including reaching out to 10 million families in the state.

The PM detailed the government’s programmes and policies for the poor, women, ex-servicemen and small farmers. Modi alluded to the leadership contest between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress leader Sachin Pilot, stating the “instability and anarchy” in the state, where crime is at its peak, on the infighting in the Congress. He accused the Congress government of “appeasing terrorists”, a reference to the acquittals in the 2008 Jaipur bomb blasts, and said it had failed to “protect the interests of the daughters” of the state.

Modi spoke at length about the “policy paralysis”, “terror incidents”, and “corruption” that prevailed in 2014 before the country elected the BJP and how “a superpower” above the prime minister “remote controlled” the government. He also reminded people about former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s admission that only 15 per cent of money sent from Delhi reached people, as evidence that the Congress “is a party that steals 85 per cent commission”.

The PM said the Congress and other parties insulted the 60,000 workers who constructed the new Parliament building by boycotting the inauguration. They are angry that “a son of a poor family” like him stands in their way and questions their nepotism and corruption, Modi said.