Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal targets Modi government, says it is a government of 'Jumlas'

BHUBANESWAR: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today targeted the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for not fulfilling any of the election promises and alleged that it is a government of 'jumlas'.

The former union minister, who was here to attend the observance of 'betrayal day by the Congress' to mark the four year completion of Modi government at the Centre, dismissed talks about any tacit understanding with the BJD.

Questioning the absence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the swearing in ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy at Bengaluru, Sibal said it is the BJD which has a tacit understanding with BJP. He also recalled that the BJD had not supported the proposal of a no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

Stating that such type of politics of Naveen Patnaik will not succeed for long, Sibal said the Congress is against the Modi government at the Centre and BJD government in the state. “Congress is with the
people and the people are against the Modi and Naveen governments,” he said.

Alleging that the prime minister has no concern for the welfare of the common people of the country, the Congress leader said the Centre is interested for the profit of big industrialists. Criticising the chief minister for always supporting the Modi government in and outside the Parliament, Sibal referred to
Naveen's statement in the assembly saying there will be no problem because of the construction of barrages and dams by Chhattisgarh on the upstream of  Mahanadi river. “Naveen is now criticising the BJP government at the Centre because of the ensuing general elections in 2019,” he said.

“Will Modi assure the people of Odisha during his visit that all construction activities by Chhattisgarh on Mahanadi river will be stopped,” Sibal asked and demanded that the Prime Minister should ensure that there is no problems for farmers getting water from the river.

Referring to a recent statement of Modi that a prime minister should be 'Kaamdar', Sibal said he should also be 'Imandaar and not Jumle daar'. Alleging that Modi's election promises were all 'Jumlas',the Congress leader asked, “What happened to the promise to bring out `80,000 crore black money and create two crore employment for the youths.”

Describing the Modi government as anti-poor and anti-farmer, Sibal said first there was demonetisation and later the hasty introduction of GST which put the common people much difficulty. And now there
is GST on farm equipments for the first time, he said.

“It is not government for the poor,” he said and added, “It is a government of Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon and ATM.” President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik, former OPCC president Sarat Patnaik and former minister Jagannath Patnaik were among those present.