Citing a World Bank report on the ease of doing business, which has four BJP-ruled States among the top five, the BJP on Tuesday hit out at Congress saying while it was working to remove poverty the main Opposition party “wants to keep the poor trapped in poverty”. Poll-bound Bihar ranks a poor 21 in the world bank list.
Quoting the report, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the BJP-led NDA would push Bihar among the top slot in a few years if it gets mandate to govern in the upcoming October-November poll Assembly elections.
“The report has shown a mirror to Congress about its negative and anti-development politics. While BJP is working to remove poverty and making programmes for the country’s progress, Congress wants to keep the poor trapped in poverty because if they are empowered and developed they will no longer remain its vote bank,” the Minister said at a Press conference here.
Pointing out that all top six ranks were occupied by BJP-ruled States, besides Andhra Pradesh, where its ally TDP is in power, he said Congress should respond to it and apologise for its politics.
Javadekar said, “The politics of Congress is based on keeping the poor poor. It did so when it was in power and it remains so now in Opposition.”
He also took up the issue of incomplete Kutku dam work on which had started in 1970s. He blamed successive Congress Governments at the Centre and lack of interest shown by the Nitish Kumar dispensation in Bihar for this.
Javadekar said he was now dealing with the matter and work on it would start soon.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu took to Twitter to say: “Hope other States also compete and move up the ladder as India’s progress depends on the States’ progress.”