STATE TIMES NEWS
Chandigarh: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the opposition INDIA bloc over the corruption issue and asked should the government not take action against the corrupt.
Singh was campaigning for the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll candidates in Haryana.
Referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in a money laundering case linked to the excise case, Singh said, “Kejriwal would claim to be the most honest person. Now, he says he has been jailed by Modi ji…should our government not take action against corruption?”.
Kejriwal is currently out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court till June 1 to campaign for the general elections.
The defence minister, who campaigned in Karnal, Kurukshetra and Bhiwani, also took on the Congress on the issue. “Earlier they (Congress) did not let the ED and CBI to work. During the Congress’ 55-year rule, the ED, CBI had seized just Rs 32 lakh in corruption matters,” he said.
But nearly Rs 22,000 crore cash has been seized and property worth Rs 1 lakh crore has been forfeited in the last 10 years, Singh said referring to action taken in the Modi government.
“Should we not act against corruption…but they are raising fingers at this too,” he said.
Singh recalled the Emergency period and said how people were put in jails.
“I was 24-year-old then and I was jailed for two-and-half months in Mirzapur and then transferred to Naini central jail. We were in jail for 18 months. They had murdered democracy.
“And when my mother died after suffering brain hemorrhage, they did not even give me parole and I did not even petition for that. Because I don’t believe in filing pleas, I believe in fighting the battle,” he said.
At the Karnal rally, where he campaigned in favour of BJP candidate and former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Singh said that the BJP in its election manifesto has promised to implement ‘one nation, one election’.
This work should have been done earlier, he said while taking on the previous Congress government.
“The Congress and other opposition parties now say how will this be done. If anyone has capacity to make impossible possible, it is the BJP,” said Singh.
Singh also alleged that the AAP and the Congress betrayed Anna Hazare and Mahatma Gandhi.
The AAP leaders had once said they would not form any political party, but they did and betrayed their “margdarshak” Anna Hazare, he said.
Singh said that after Independence, Mahatma Gandhi had said the aim of country’s freedom has been achieved, and the Congress should be dissolved.
The AAP did not listen to what Anna Hazare said and the Congress did not listen to “Bapu” (Mahatma Gandhi), the defence minister said.
Singh also referred to the alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal in Kejriwal’s residence and the arrest of Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar in the case.
“She is their Rajya Sabha MP. She was badly beaten, her hair was pulled. But he (Kejriwal) is not speaking a word about him (Bibhav),” Singh said.
Attacking the Congress, he said they ruled the country for nearly 55 years, but failed to alleviate poverty.
From Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to Manmohan Singh, they talked of alleviating poverty, but it did not happen, he said.
First time in independent India, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who brought 25 crore Indians out of poverty, he said.
The way India is moving ahead, it will become a super power in times to come, said Singh.
Even Pakistani leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that ‘India is going to become a superpower, while we (Pak) are begging to avoid bankruptcy’, the defence minister said.
“If we are aiming to become a superpower, it is not to occupy any territory, not to attack a country, but for the world’s welfare. Our saints always treated the whole world as one family,” he said.
He also said that what the BJP promises it fulfils that as he spoke of scrapping of Article 370 and bringing a law against ‘triple talaq’.
He also said the dream of millions of “Ram bhakts” was fulfilled with the construction of a grand Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya.
He also said that corruption was rampant during the previous Congress-led UPA government.
However, be it Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Modi government, not even one minister has been accused of corruption, he said.
“They (opposition) say if Modi gets more than 400 seats, democracy will be in danger. People now are politically aware, no one can befool them,” Singh said.
He praised Khattar for running a transparent administration in Haryana when he was the chief minister.
Voting for all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana will take place in the sixth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on May 25.