“Modi ki guarantee” and “Sab ka Sath and Sab ka Vikas” are going to be BJP’s election push in 2024 even as the Narendra Modi government strives to take all welfare schemes to saturation point, said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur at Manch 2023, a platform for political discourse organised by ITV Network, here on Wednesday.
He hit out at the Congress for relying on regionalism and fueling a north-south divide debate. “When the Congress’ guarantees have vanished and when the Congress has failed to divide nation on caste lines, the Congress has brought in the north-south debate to distract people,” said Thakur.
The minister slammed the Congress for corruption and said the youth of the day need to be told about the dark deeds of the Congress in the past and scams like 2G, 3G, coal scam and AgustaWestland kickback case.
“The Congress keeps complaining about actions by ED and CBI but their own MP in Jharkhand – Dhiraj Prasad Sahu – is sitting over bundles of money,” said Thakur, hitting out at the Grand Old Party for its failure to give clean governance in the past.
He welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on Article 370, saying that three generations of the BJP have made sacrifices for getting the historical blunder rectified and after the apex court verdict the chapter has been given finality. The minister hailed the Modi government for delivering on the economic and development fronts – building airports, medical college, offering houses, toilets, tap water and LPG connection – and said what the Congress could not achieve in 60 years the Modi government has achieved in 9 years. Asked about BJP’s plan to increase its tally in 2024, Thakur said that the party is on the road to doubling its LS tally in Telangana from 4 to over 8 and improve its performance in Karnataka. Talking about the critical references of former President Pranab Mukherjee about Rahul Gandhi in a book written by the former’s daughter Sharmistha, Thakur said, “Such was the level of distrust in Mukherjee by the Congress and its first family that his office was also bugged.”
