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‘Dynastic’, ‘double brake’ govts hit progress in UP, Uttarakhand: PM Modi
The Prime Minister addressed virtual rallies in both states going to polls. He was scheduled to travel to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, but the plan was scrapped due to inclement weather, officials familiar with development said.
The Congress party is stalling progress in Uttarakhand despite being aware of its strategic importance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, and said the policies of the Samajwadi Party has stopped the “river of development” in Uttar Pradesh.
The Prime Minister addressed virtual rallies in both states going to polls. He was scheduled to travel to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, but the plan was scrapped due to inclement weather, officials familiar with development said.
Monday’s virtual address in UP, addressing voters in Bijnor, Moradabad and Amroha dstricts, is Modi’s third. He referred to a poem by poet Dushyant Kumar, who hailed from the region, and hit out at the SP, saying the party was engaged in crime and corruption during its rule in 2012-17.
“They kept you in the dark so that crime could increase. We provided electricity, so that development could increase,” Modi said. Women felt safe under Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule in India’s most populous state, where criminals had their bails cancelled or have fled from the state, he said.
“These criminals who had fled the state are now itching to come back so they can resume their criminal activities. They want to seek revenge and that is why they want to ensure division in the name of caste,” he said. “Be careful of their designs, vote in large numbers and only for BJP’s lotus flower symbol, nothing else.”
In the first of seven election phases in Uttar Pradesh, polling for 58 seats is scheduled to be held on February 10. Bijnor will be among the 53 seats that go to polls in the second phase on February 14.
The Prime Minister invoked Jat leader and former Prime Minister Charan Singh, saying people seeking votes in his name were trying to mislead voters.
His comments were a veiled reference to the SP’s alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal, whose chief Jayant Chaudhary is grandson of Charan Singh.
Both SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Chaudhary have been campaigning in the region, where they have been taking an anna pledge (pledge over food grains for solidarity) and invoking Charan Singh’s legacy. Yadav has been describing himself and Chaudhary as “sons of farmers”.
“In previous governments, farmers seeking fertilisers and urea had to face police lathis. Today, those responsible for that are trying to invoke Charan Singh’s legacy to mislead you,” Modi said. “Yogi ji’s government has made record payment of minimum support price to farmers for their produce.”
Chaudhary tweeted shortly after Modi’s virtual rally, saying, “Bijnor mein dhoop khil rahi hai, lekin bhajapa ka mausam kharab hai (It’s sunny in Bijnor but BJP’s weather is bad).”
Modi’s line of attack in Uttarakhand was against the previous Congress governments in the state. He accused the previous regimes of ignoring the state’s strategic value, and said they led a “double brake” government that stalled development.
“They did not hesitate to put even the security of the country at risk to push back development work of Uttarakhand. There are some people who do not want to do good themselves, and if someone else does good, then it troubles them,” the Prime Minister said in his virtual address to voters in Dehradun and Haridwar. “This has been the attitude of the Congress towards Uttarakhand...Congress has been blocking development in Uttarakhand as it was created despite its opposition.”
“The Rishikesh to Karanprayag railway line is a big example of how the brakes on development were removed after the BJP came to power. The work on this project was to be started a decade ago. However, the preceding government only put brakes on it. From 2011 to 2014, they were ruling at the Centre and state, putting in place a double brake government,” Modi said.
“In 2014, when you gave me the opportunity to serve you at the Centre, we removed the brake. We started work on the Rishikesh to Karanprayag railway line. We used to push the work from Delhi, but brakes were applied from Dehradun. In 2017, when Uttarakhand got a double-engine government, ₹5,500 crore have been spent,” the Prime Minister said.
He also pointed out that the work on the Delhi-Dehradun highway had started during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, when Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
“But Congress subsequently left the work languishing on the grounds that the UP government hadn’t provided the necessary clearances. But the fact is that the Congress headed government at the Centre, and its allies were in power in Lucknow. The project was, however, completed when BJP’s double-engine government came to power at the Centre and Dehradun,” he said.
Polling will be held Uttarakhand on February 14.
(With agency inputs)
