Slamming the Centre over demonetisation and GST, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not prepared to accept the reality of their impact.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also accused the BJP of misleading the people on issues such as loan waiver for farmers and corruption.
Mr. Yadav, addressing the people at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Yadav Dharmshala in Vrindaban, said there was no other party that “lies as much as the BJP does.” From luring farmers with the loan waiver scheme and promise of increasing the income of the common man, the BJP had “deliberately misled the people, to the extent that my party could not come to power.”
He alleged that during the Uttar Pradesh elections, the BJP did not give the specifics of the farmers’ loan waiver scheme and later riders after riders were introduced, which resulted in the majority being deprived of the benefits.
While small traders had been badly hit by the demonetisation and the GST, the youth had been rendered jobless, he alleged. It was sad that the Prime Minister was not prepared to accept the true picture of the impact of demonetisation and GST.
Mr. Yadav dismissed the Prime Minister’s assertion that corruption had been eradicated after demonetisation.
The BJP claimed that it would ensure that the income of farmers doubled by 2022. But so far, the reverse had happened. Potato growers of Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Agra and Mathura in U.P. were not even getting the cost price for their produce, though Yogi Adityanath’s government said it had allotted ₹400 crore for them. “The farmers are not getting the advantage of Kisan Durghatna Yojna either,” he claimed.
He held the U.P. government responsible for the death of children at a Gorakhpur hospital. Government data showed the toll in Gorakhpur was 60, but the fact was that it ran into hundreds, he claimed. The worst part was that those affected were not given any relief by the State government, while the Samajvadi Party had given a relief of ₹2 lakh to the victim’s families, he said.
Mr. Yadav also backed the demand for reservation for Yadavs. “We don’t want to deny anyone their claim. Yadavs may be given reservation on the basis of their population,” the former Chief Minister said.