New Delhi: In an all out attack on both the BJP and the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has called the Narendra Modi government’s claims of a developed Gujarat a sham arguing that contrarybto the image presented of the state its villages depict a picture of misery and sorrow.
“Yes, the highways in Gujarat are fabulous, but in villages the roads are completely absent,” Mr Kejriwal said at the India Today Conclave yesterday in a session titled ‘Dharna, Democracy and Demographies: Making Government Work’.
Going a step further, the former Delhi Chief Minister said the state was not run by the government but by big business houses like the Ambanis and the Adanis.
“They (big industrialists) ask for land in the state and they immediately get it at dirt cheap prices, even as the farmers are committing suicides in the state,” Mr Kejriwal told a packed house at the Conclave.
Not sparing the Congress either, Mr Kejriwal said state governments in both the Congress as well as BJP ruled states were hand in glove with the big industrialists.
“Once there is knowledge of a big project coming in a particular area, people close to the ruling parties buy the land around it and then sell on premium once the project is realised, thus making huge profits.
The modus operandi is simple and both the Congress and the BJP is guilty of doing that,” he said citing the example of Congress President’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s property purchases in Rajasthan.
He alleged that the two parties have an unwritten pact to keep mum about such deals. ‘The BJP leaders knew what Vadra was up to and similarly the Congress knows about BJP’s misdeeds, but they choose to keep quite about such dealings,’ he said.
He claimed that it was not the BJP but his party that exposed Mr Vadra’s land deals even though the former knew about it.
The former team Anna member also rubbished the Gujarat chief minister’s claim of keeping the state riot-free for 12 years saying a lot of riots have taken place even after the Godhra incident.
“Riots don’t happen automatically, they are perpetuated,” he said adding if a single riot case is investigated properly and the bosses of the party responsible for it are held accountable there will be no more riots. He said the riots benefit all the parties. “After a riot the Hindus vote for BJP and the Muslims go for the SP (Samajwadi Party). At the end of the day neither does anything for the Hindus or the Muslims, their condition remains the same,” Mr Kejriwal remarked.
Questioning his detention during his recent trip to north Gujarat, he asked if he was a terrorist. ‘I’m lucky I was not encountered there,’ he said sarcastically referring to the numerous encounters that have taken place in the state during Mr Modi’s rule. In a frontal attack on the BJP, Mr Kejriwal said the Energy Minister in Gujarat was the son-in-law of the Ambani family which essentially gives the reins of the state to them.
However, he dodged questions about his Prime Ministerial ambitions saying it was not important as corruption is the main issue for his party. (UNI)