Union minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday said India's economy was stumbling during the UPA rule, but when the Modi government came to power, the country became the world's fifth largest economy.
He also said Rajasthan's image has been tarnished due to rising crimes and corruption under the Congress government, referring to it as "Geh-Loot" rule.
Taking a jibe at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he said they go to other states when crimes against women are committed, but never come to the Congress-ruled Rajasthan when such incidents are reported here.
Addressing a conference of the BJP's youth representatives at the Birla Auditorium here, the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports called upon them to seek votes for the party for the upcoming Assembly elections so that a "double-engine" government is formed and development gets accelerated.
"The economy was stumbling nine years ago when the government of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi was there. It was the tenth largest economy in the world. When the Modi government came, it worked with honesty, steered the country through the coronavirus crisis and took the economy from the tenth to the fifth largest," he said.
Thakur said Priyanka Gandhi had said "Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon" but she does not visit Rajasthan when crimes against women are committed in the state.
"A woman is gang raped in front of her husband. What did the chief minister do? A tribal girl was gang raped and thrown into a well. A woman was raped and burnt alive in Barmer. Rajasthan minister says it is a state of 'mard' (men)," he said.
He said Rahul Gandhi had promised loan waiver for farmers of Rajasthan in the 2018 Assembly elections, and asked whether the loans were waived. He said lands of thousands of farmers were attached in the state but the former Congress president did not go to meet them.
"Rahul Gandhi can go to Leh Ladakh as much as he wants, play with Priyanka Gandhi in Kashmir with snowballs, we have no problem with that. You could not go to Kashmir during your rule but it is the Modi government that abrogated article 370 and treated the wound forever which was given to the nation by your maternal uncle Pandit Nehru," he said.
BJP state president CP Joshi and other leaders were also present in the conference.
BJP Yuva Morcha state president Ankit Gurjar Chechi said that the party's Zila Pramukh, Zila Parishad members, sarpanch, ward panch, student unions' office bearers and other youth representatives attended the conference.
Later at a press conference at the state BJP headquarters, Thakur again hit out at the Congress government over law and order and corruption issues.
"The state whose image was completely different earlier, where has it come in five years. There is an atmosphere of fear and corruption. Crime and loot are visible everywhere," he alleged.
Thakur said Rajasthan has to "get rid of this loot government".
