‘Himachal in reverse gear’
Himachal Pradesh BJP president Rajeev Bindal had been the health minister in the party-led government from 2007 to 2012.
He also took a dig at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over his comments that not a needle was manufactured indigenously when India gained freedom and late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru built everything.
BJP leader Sudhanshu Trivedi on Friday took potshots at the Congress’ manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by pointing out pictures of the New York’s Buffalo National River and a Thailand location in the portion on environmental cleanliness in the manifesto.
Addressing a press conference, he said, “There is a picture on water management in the Congress manifesto. This picture is of the Buffalo River in New York state. Till now they have not been able to find out who was tweeting from their social media chairperson’s Twitter, but who sent them this picture? Under the environment section, a picture from Rahul Gandhi’s favoured destination, Thailand, has been put. Who is putting all this in their manifesto?”
The BJP national spokesperson asserted that this manifesto of the Congress is an attempt to “mislead people again”.
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He also took a dig at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over his comments that not a needle was manufactured indigenously when India gained freedom and late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru built everything.
“Shiv Samundaram power project was started in Mysore in 1902 but not a needle was made until 1947; the Indian Institute of Science came up in 1916; Minto eye hospital came up in India pre-independence when hospitals worldwide would only have eye departments.
“CV Raman got a Nobel in 1930 but it was Nehru who built educational institutions in which children studied to become doctors and engineers..,” the BJP leader said, mocking Kharge’s remarks at the unveiling of the Congress manifesto.
He added that the Congress manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’ does not match Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “tried and tested guarantees”.
“The fact that the Congress manifesto rests on the edifice of so-called nyaya (justice) is an acknowledgment that in 55 years the party ruled India, it only perpetrated injustices all over,” Trivedi added.
Right to apprenticeship, a legal guarantee for MSP, and passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs are among the promises made by the Congress in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls released on Friday.
The manifesto, focusing on five “pillars of justice” and 25 guarantees under them, was released at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
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