Controversy is baseless: Joshi

Hubballi: Amid growing clamour over the revision to textbooks, which has escalated following the resignation of two authors from the panel, Union minister for parliamentary affairs and Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday dubbed the controversy ‘baseless’. “Nobody has read the new textbooks in detail. Opposition parties are stirring up controversies given that the assembly elections were less than a year away. These controversies are nothing but political gimmicks,” Joshi said.
The Dharwad MP, who watched Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interactive programme with the beneficiaries of the Centre’s schemes, said that many such non-issues were being blown out of proportion by the opposition parties with an eye on the outcome of the elections. “Opposition parties are levelling allegations against the BJP-led government for mistakes they committed when they were in power,” added Joshi.
The Union minister exuded confidence of the saffron party winning all the three seats in the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. “Opposition parties do not have the numbers to get their candidates elected to the upper house. The BJP does, and will win all the three seats. We have already chalked out our strategy to win all the seats. We cannot disclose our plan till after we have won the elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of beneficiaries of the various schemes rolled out by the central government participated in the virtual interactive session with PM Modi. In Hubballi, the beneficiaries, many among whom were women, gathered at a convention centre, and shared their thoughts with the PM. Along with Joshi, Hubballi-Dhatwad mayor Iresh Anchatageri participated in the event, while the absence of senior leaders including former CM Jagadish Shettar, minister Shankar Patil Munenakoppa and MLA Arvind Bellad was conspicuous.