Senior AAP leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi dubbed the BJP’s election manifesto as a ‘Jumla Patra’ (document of rhetoric), questioning the ruling party about the promises it allegedly failed to keep in 10 years of its rule.
Addressing a press conference here, the senior AAP leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the “rhetoric document” of his party for the Lok Sabha elections. She claimed that the document presents a clear picture of the unfulfilled promises.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the manifesto “BJP’s Sankalp – Modi’s Guarantee 2024” for the Lok Sabha elections at the BJP Central Office Extension.
Taking a dig at the saffron party, the Delhi minister pointed out that the party that had promised two crore jobs every year failed to mention about the employment figures in its manifesto after ten years of its tenure.
She said in the 75-page document, the ruling party at the Centre has not mentioned how many youths have been given employment in the last 10 years. She noted that the rate of unemployment in the country is the highest in 45 years and youth employment is at an all-time low with 25 per cent of youth remaining unemployed.
She pointed out that the Central government confessed in Parliament that it hasn’t provided even two crore jobs in the last 10 years.
“In the manifesto, there are no figures on inflation. But the consumer price index in the last 10 years shows that cumulative dearness has increased by 70 per cent in India, which is the second highest after Turkey in the world. India is not at a higher position in terms of employment, economic development, GDP, but PM Modi made India ensured the second position for the country in the world in dearness,” she said.
On the farmers’ income, the AAP leader pointed out that in the 75-page document, the BJP is running away from the promise it made to the farmers, as there is no mention of it in their manifesto. “Forget about doubling the income of farmers, this government passed three anti-farmer legislations in Parliament. Farmers across the country protested at Delhi’s borders for months against these three anti-farmer farm laws,” she recalled.
“Youth want employment and good education. While the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab are providing good education through government schools by increasing budget on education, the number of government schools in the country started decreasing after Modi became prime minister. In 2014, there were 11 lakh government schools in the country, the number has now reduced to 10 lakh after the closure of one lakh government schools in the last 10 years,” she claimed.
Talking about health facilities, she said only Rs 8,000 crore have been spent on the Ayushman Bharat Scheme last year, which she claimed is less than the health budget of a small state like Delhi. “Delhi’s annual health budget is Rs 9,500 crore. How would you give treatment through the Ayushman Bharat Scheme if there are no hospitals, no super speciality treatment, no investigation facilities,” she questioned.
Atishi further claimed that the people in the country are not going to believe in the BJP manifesto. During the past 10 years, the entire country, the youth and the women saw the rhetoric and this time they all would certainly vote against this rhetoric.