Former chief minister and general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC), Harish Rawat has claimed that the BJP would be voted out of power in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
“Narendra Modi arrived with lot of rhetoric (Jumla) and would depart with these rhetoric’’, said the veteran leader while interacting with the media persons at Gandhi Park on Monday where he observed a one hour repentance fast on the tragic murder of a Dalit Youth by some ruffians belonging to upper caste in Tehri district recently. He said that none of the promises made by PM Modi were fulfilled.
The veteran leader said that a promise to provide two Crore jobs every year was made by the PM but instead of giving employment, 45 lakh central government jobs were dissolved. Reminding the promise made by Modi to clean Ganga, Rawat said that the condition of the river has not improved a bit.
Terming the murder of Dalit youth, Jitendra Das in a Tehri village recently as most unfortunate, he said that it shocking that such an incident has happened even after more than 70 years of independenceTerming his decision to sit on a fast as apolitical, he said that the purpose of it was to observe repentance. “Jitendra Das was the lone earning member of his family. At this moment of grief everyone should be with the family. I hope that the incident would be last of its kind in our state,’’ he said.
On the incident of gang-rape of a Dalit woman in Alwar district of Rajasthan and allegation of BJP that the Rajasthan police on orders from the state government sat over the case, Rawat said that the allegations are baseless. “The fact is that the Congress workers reported the case to the police for the first time’’ he said.
The former CM criticised the Uttarakhand Government for blaming Congress for the sinking of the floating restaurant, ‘Marina’ in Tehri Lake. He said that though the boat was purchased during his tenure, it had remained neglected. “The boat sank because water on one side became less.
The officials should have shifted the boat when the water was reducing. We developed many facilities in the Tehri Lake but nothing is being done now.
Instead of doing something, it appears that this government has made it a fashion to targeting us,’’ he quipped.
Earlier on the day Harish Rawat along with large number of his supporters observed a one hour long silent fast in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.