Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday raked up the issue of “revdi culture” yet again as he sought to distinguish between his Government’s free ration scheme, which the Opposition parties have termed a “freebie”, and those by the others, with Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal being the main target of his indirect attack. He asserted “a large section of the country is gearing up to rid the country of revdi culture”.
“The Government is providing free ration to 80 crore countrymen during the pandemic and has spent more than `3 lakh crore on this. When the taxpayer feels that his money is being spent in the right place, s/he also feels happy. Today, crores of taxpayers in the country are satisfied with the great service they are doing by helping to feed crores of people during the corona period. When this same taxpayer sees that free ‘revdi’ is being distributed with the money collected from him, then he also gets pained. Today many such taxpayers are writing letters to me openly. I am happy that a large section of the country is gearing up to rid the country of revdi culture,” he said.
The PM had in July this year first spoken about the freebies culture as he targeted political opponents. Accusing them of promising freebies in exchange for votes, he had warned the people, especially the youth, against the revdi culture, saying it is very dangerous for the country and its well-being.
The AAP and Kejriwal had taken strong exception to it and termed their freebies like free power to consumers as Government’s responsibilities. Those like senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot had termed the Centre’s free ration scheme as “revdi”.
Modi was addressing the event of “Griha Pravesham” of about 4.51 lakh beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin scheme in Satna, MP. As it coincided with the Dhanteras celebrations, Modi said, “There was a time when only those who had means would celebrate Dhanteras.”
Now even the country’s poor people are marking Griha Pravesh to their own homes.”
He said Rs 22,000 crore were spent on the construction of these houses only in Madhya Pradesh while nationwide the “dreams of 3.5 crore families” have been fulfilled so far.
He said the Government’s endeavour is to to minimise the expenditure of middle and low-income groups and showcased the Ayushman Bharat scheme which has benefited 4 crore people. He also pointed out that the government had spent thousands of crore for the free vaccine campaign during corona and prevented the poor from shelling money out of their own pockets.
Citing the rising fertiliser prices due to the Ukraine War, the Prime Minister underlined that the government is going to spend an extra sum of Rs 2 lakh crore this year so that farmers do not bear the burden.