People of Jharkhand turned unsuccessful the bandh call given by Congress and other Opposition parties, said State BJP Spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo. Talking to the media at the BJP headquarters on Monday, Shahdeo claimed the Congress and other opposition leaders merely used the opportunity for clicking their pictures. “The Opposition leaders would have earned more Punya if they had distributed the amount they spent on dry cleaning their clothes to the poor people,” he added.
But, the bandh adversely affected the poorest of the poor. About 5 lakh daily wage labourers could not work today, Shahdeo claimed. “All over the State, the Opposition leaders merely took their selfies and raised slogans as a formality. But, who is answerable to the poor masses, who lost their job due to the bandh?” he said.
Flanked by other party spokespersons, Shahdeo alleged that at several places in Jharkhand, the bandh supporters misbehaved with the common masses and also broke the window panes of many vehicles. The opposition had claimed that the bandh would be peaceful, but the manner in which the bandh supporters wrecked havoc, all the claims fell flat, he added.
Shahdeo expressed surprise that instead of leading their supporters here in the State, JMM chief Hemant Soren and JVM Supremo Babulal Marandi preferred to sit on dharna in Delhi. “This shows the two leaders are less concerned about the people of Jharkhand and keener on getting the limelight in the national capital,” he added.
“The Union government is running several welfare schemes for the poor people of the country, which needs collection of taxes. But, the Congress does not want the betterment of the poor people. Petrol prices are determined according to the international crude oil prices. If the prices are high then Congress is responsible for it because it was the party that removed subsidy from petrol,” Shahdeo said.
The allegation of inflation by Congress is baseless, Shahdeo said. “During Congress regime Galic used to sell for ` 50 to 70 a kg in the wholesale market, today it’s selling for Rs 15 to 25 a kg. Potato prices have come down from Rs 18-22 to Rs 11-12. Onion prices have shot up to Rs 70 and above a kg, but the same onion is now available for Rs 12 a kg. Besides, prices of pulses such as Rahar had skyrocketed during the UPA regime, but now it’s under control. Let alone pulses, the present government in Delhi has also kept under control prices of all food grain items. Even then the Opposition levels baseless charges of inflation merely to demean the good work of the Modi government,” he added.
Recalling the prices of petrol during the UPA 2 period, the BJP spokesperson said the price of petrol in Delhi on September 14, 2013 was Rs 76.6 a litre, in Kolkata it was Rs 83.68, in Mumbai it was Rs 83.6 and in Chennai it was Rs 79.55 the same day. The price of petrol had crossed Rs 74 in Jharkhand those days, but the then government did not make any move to provide any respite to the common masses. Neither any welfare schemes were initiated by the UPA government nor any effort was made to check the rising petrol prices,” Shahdeo said.
Shahdeo concluded that the Congress and other opposition parties are disturbed by the popularity of the Modi government and confident that BJP will have a clean sweep in the 2019 general elections; the opposition adopts various tactics just to be in news.