Welfare schemes are not freebies: Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a virtual address lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Union government without naming them, saying that “the same people who are creating a ruckus over free benefits to the poor and middle class citizens have written-off debt worth ₹10 lakh crores to a handful of people.”

On a day when his Aam Aadmi Party sought to intervene in a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court saying electoral promises such as free water, free electricity or free public transport are not “freebies” but merely a state discharging “constitutional responsibilities” to create an equitable society, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a virtual address lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Union government without naming them, saying that “the same people who are creating a ruckus over free benefits to the poor and middle class citizens have written-off debt worth ₹10 lakh crores to a handful of people.”

(ANI)

“A law should be introduced to declare such activity (writing off bad loans) as treason and people responsible should be punished. It should also be probed how much donations such people gave (to the ruling party). One party believes in parivaarwad (nepotism), while the other believes in dostwad (crony capitalism),” Kejriwal said , adding that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would usher “bharatwad” (national interest) in the country.

AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been locked in an intense fight over “freebie politics”.

On July 16, while speaking at an event in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the culture of freebies.

“The ‘revadi culture’ is very dangerous for the development of the country,” Modi said, calling on people to not fall for this culture.

The Prime Minister used the term ‘revadi’, a popular north Indian sweet often distributed during festivals, as a metaphor for freebies being promised by various parties to grab power.

“Those behind this ‘revadi culture’ do not believe in building expressways, airports and defence corridors. Together we have to defeat this thinking and remove this culture from politics,” he added.

A BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, has also filed a PIL in this connection which is being heard by the top court which has sought suggestions from all stakeholders on the way to put a stop to the practice of offering freebies ahead of elections.

“Some people are trying to create such an atmosphere in the country where they want to make citizens think that providing free education, health care, electricity and water is some crime; they want people to think it makes the government incur losses and must be stopped. 39 countries like Denmark and Norway give free and good education to their children, 9 countries like Canada and UK provide free health care while 16 countries like (United States of ) America and Germany give unemployment allowance. These countries have become rich powers because they provide good education and health facilities to their people for free, their leaders do not waive off the debts of their friends,” said Kejriwal.

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia in a press conference slammed Kejriwal over his remarks. “AAP is zero on the ground, but wants to become a hero by giving revadi… Arvind Kejriwal makes promises but does not fulfil them. AAP should learn from states that are led by BJP to learn policy-making and planning… The epitome of corruption is the Aam Aadmi Party,” Bhatia said.

In his address, Kejriwal claimed “ the same people who are creating a ruckus over free benefits to the poor and middle class citizens have written-off debt worth ₹10 lakh crores of a handful of people. Some of those people are their best friends. They have imposed GST on edible items in the entire country. They are fine with letting common man die but they cannot provide any relief to them. However, they have written off debt for a handful of billionaires.”

He added that the narrative against free benefits for citizens is being created with the purpose to end free education, electricity, health care facilities. “Only those who have money will get treated and those who don’t have money will be left on their own. Governments won’t care if they live or die. An atmosphere is being created to project that giving free electricity is a sin and it should be stopped. Only ministers should get free electricity and not the common man.”

“We’re celebrating the 75th year of independence but we’ve forgotten that our leaders have failed to provide our children with free world-class education,” he said.

Kejriwal not only defended the “freebies” being given by the AAP government in Delhi, such as free electricity up to 200 units and free water up to 20,000 litre per month, but also demanded that more such schemes, including an unemployment allowance, should be launched by governments.

(with inputs from Isha Sahai Bhatnagar)