The culture of political violence that is being allegedly propagated by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government will adversely affect its prospects in the coming Lok Sabha polls, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was in the State capital on Tuesday to inaugurate the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convention of Thiruvananthapuram constituency candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan.
Alleging that a chaotic situation prevailed in the State, she accused the CPI(M) of unleashing its cadres to operate along with the police to eliminate or frame BJP and the RSS.
“Instances of dreadful violence against the BJP and the RSS workers continue unabated in the State. However, despite accusing the BJP of being responsible for the attacks, the government has desisted from conducting comprehensive probes. This clearly proves their fear of being exposed for orchestrating such violence. Violence of such order cannot be seen anywhere else in the country,” she said.
Rebutting the Opposition claims that the Narendra Modi government has failed to generate employment, Ms. Sitharaman said the debate failed to consider the jobs generated in the unorganised sector.
Unorganised sector
“The data being collected by government agencies include only those on workers in the organised sector. However, massive employment has been generated by small and medium-sized businesses that have formed around the infrastructure developed by the Modi government,” she said.
She also accused the Congress of manufacturing fictitious and fake documents to raise false allegations against the BJP. “It is a sign of their desperation. Such actions will not have an impact in the polls. Let them instead focus on retaining their 44 seats (in the Lok Sabha),” she quipped.
Inaugurating the convention, Ms. Sitharaman said the NDA government had inherited a country that suffered through irresponsible governance at the hands of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). “The country is currently the third fastest growing economy in the world. We cannot afford to lose the momentum. To ensure this, the Modi government has implemented major reforms, some even unpopular, to ensure that the bureaucratic system worked in tandem with the government,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
BJP leaders Kummanan Rajasekharan, O. Rajagopal, MLA, national executive member P.K. Krishnadas, district president S. Suresh, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair, former diplomat T.P. Sreenivasan, former bureaucrat C.V. Ananda Bose, and former State Police Chief T.P. Sreenivasan were among those present.