Varun Gandhi slams govt on new ration card rules, says 'eligible before election & ineligible afterwards'

BAREILLY: Taking a dig at the new ration card rules, BJP MP Varun Gandhi once again criticised the Centre, led by his party, on Saturday, saying governments lose their credibility if all parameters affecting the life of the common man are decided by looking through the prism of elections.
“Eligible before election and ineligible after election... governments will lose their credibility if all parameters affecting the life of the common man are decided by looking through the of elections. When will the govt remember the crores of countrymen who lost their ration cards as soon as the elections are over? Maybe in the next elections,” he tweeted, sharing a newspaper clipping of the latest eligibility criteria for holding a ration card.

Varun told TOI being eligible for a government welfare scheme should not be dictated by election timelines. “The same voters who had access to government schemes (which count as "achievements" for the government) prior to elections should not lose access after polls. Consistency in policy and ideology is the hallmark of good governance.”
Varun’s tweet was widely shared on social media, many saying that with the new set of rules, nearly 95% of the population will lose their benefits.
A user replied to the tweet, “Government gave free power connection to the poor and now the person with power connection is ineligible. Was it a conspiracy to eradicate the ration card scheme by the government itself?”
While another social media user replied, “With these conditions, the BPL cards will finish and the government will say that we have eradicated poverty… What couldn’t happen in 70 years happened in 7 years.”
Several people praised Varun for raising his voice against the wrong policies of the government and acting as the representative of the public, and not that of the party.
Amid the Covid-19 global health scare, ration card-holders were given free ration twice a month — once from the central government and then from the state. There were, however, complaints that many non-eligible people were also getting free ration.