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BJP has no development agenda, says Shashi Tharoor
In the upcoming third phase of voting there will be a change in Karnataka and north Indian speaking states as the BJP has no development agenda and only rich people have benefitted from the country’s economic growth, he said
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won’t get a single seat in two states Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the situation of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in southern India is bad, said Shashi Tharoor, a three times MP of Congress from Kerala.
In the upcoming third phase of voting there will be a change in Karnataka and north Indian speaking states as the BJP has no development agenda and only rich people have benefitted from the country’s economic growth, he said.
Tharoor was speaking during the Youth Connect programme held by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the city on Sunday.
“The Hindi speaking states which were a stronghold for the BJP have come up in fewer numbers to vote. The youth there are convinced that the BJP government has failed to provide employment opportunities,” he said.
Tharoor, said, “The BJP came up with the examples of Gujarat development in 2014 and the people even non-Hindu followers voted for development but there was no development. Due to demonetisation of currency small and medium-sized businesses suffered losses.”
He further said that in 2019, BJP won the election again and people were waiting for development promises to be fulfilled. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not let development become the focus of the election. Instead, he talked about what he did against Pakistan and managed to make it a national issue. However, the current situation with China sitting at the border has made it difficult to talk about development or national security. For over 45 years, there has been an understanding to patrol at (Line of Actual Control) 65 dedicated points, but now our army cannot reach those points.
“The BJP now cannot talk about development or national security but divide people on religious beliefs. Problems like unemployment and inflation have made the situation bad for the common man. The hike in petrol prices and GST, which is collected mostly (60%) from normal people. Only the rich people are happy with the government and the common man’s life has been affected,” he said.
Tharoor also said that allegations of countries like the US, Canada and Australia that India is killing people on their soil is a serious latest problem the country is facing.
He said it was acceptable if something like this would have happened in a country like Pakistan which was involved in killing people in India for years but, something happening like this in democratic nations is also affecting our relations with them. He further said that these countries are now comparing India with Russia and China which are often involved in such practices.
