Congress member of Parliament (MP) from Rohtak Deepender Singh Hooda on Sunday criticised the BJP governments - both at the Centre and in Haryana - for trying to take credit for projects announced by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre.
Describing the withdrawal of his invitation for Saturday’s “bhumi pujan” of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Jhajjar district as an insult to parliamentary democracy and people of the Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency, Deepender said it was an unprecedented act and smacks of vendetta politics. “The matter will be raised in Parliament.” the three-time Congress MP said.
“The foundation stone for the cancer institute was laid by former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on January 3, 2014. The BJP-led NDA at the Centre wanted to remove the foundation stone and invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holding a fresh ceremony. They, however, dropped the idea when I opposed it. It is a clear case of vendetta politics,” Deepender said at a press conference on Sunday.
He said while the advertisements issued by Union government duly mentioned his name, it was missing altogether in the state government advertisements. “It shows the petty mindedness of the state government. I was invited by the director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and Union health minister JP Nadda personally extended the invitation to me during the Lok Sabha session. It is regrettable that the person who got this project sanctioned was the only one missing at the event,’’ he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said while the advertisements issued by Union government duly mentioned his name, it was missing altogether in the state government advertisements. “It shows the petty mindedness of the state government. I was invited by the director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), and Union health minister JP Nadda personally extended the invitation to me during the Lok Sabha session. It is regrettable that the person who got this project sanctioned was the only one missing at the event,’’ he said.
{{/usCountry}}“I have tried to find out a parallel to this disgraceful episode but there’s none. Even two Congress MLAs from Jhajjar district -Raghuveer Singh Kadian (Beri) and Geeta Bhukkal (Jhajjar) were also not invited for the function,” the Rohtak MP said.
The MP said the BJP government in the state and the Centre had not announced any new project for Haryana but were trying to take credit for all the projects set in motion by the previous UPA regime. “There are 48 central projects for Haryana which were announced or initiated by the UPA government. Most of them have been either dumped in cold storage or delayed inordinately or shelved by the Union government. I demand that central government should implement these projects. And if it is so keen to corner glory, it should announce new projects for Haryana,” the MP added.