Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Kalraj Mishra Saturday said his party had not promised Rs 15 lakh in everybody’s bank account in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and accused the opposition parties of spreading “disinformation” over this issue to “mislead” people.
At a press conference here on the 39th foundation day of the BJP, he hit out at the Congress over its proposed minimum income guarantee scheme and the Rafale fighter jet issue claiming that the party was “in the habit of speaking lies”.
To a question on the 2014 poll promise of providing Rs 15 lakh, Mishra said “I want to clarify that we never made any Rs 15 lakh promise. In a public address (ahead of 2014 polls), our leader said that if black money stashed abroad comes back, an estimated Rs 15 lakh can be given per family. But this promise was never made in our party’s manifesto.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi never made any such promise, he asserted.
On Congress’ ‘Nyay’ (minimum income guarantee scheme), Mishra said, “They were in power for 10 years, why did they not think about the poor then? Moreover, they have not yet explained the process how they will give this amount. They made promises in 2004 and 2009, but failed to fulfil those. They are in the habit of speaking lies.”
Asked about the Congress’ allegation on the Rafale issue, the BJP leader alleged that Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders were going by the theory that if a lie is repeated often and enough number of times, it would pass off as truth.
On Modi’s ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ slogan, Mishra said the BJP never said it means to rid the country of the Congress party.
“It was to rid the nation of corruption and their policies and we were committed to end this,” he said.
Dubbing the Congress poll manifesto a “pack of lies”, he referred to the party’s pledge to scrap the British-era sedition law and review Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) to claim that it was an “insult to the country’s people and its brave soldiers”.
Asserting that for the ruling BJP, the nation and nationalism was above all, he said the NDA government headed by Prime Minister Modi will give a strong reply to enemies who “look at our country with an evil eye”.
On the anti-terror air strikes in Pakistan’s Balakot, Mishra said, “While Pakistan asked for proof, it was unfortunate that some parties in our country too had raised doubts about these strikes.”
He slammed PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for saying that the relation of Jammu and Kashmir with India will end if the terms and conditions of the state’s accession to the Union were changed.
Asked why the BJP-led NDA had not scrapped Article 370 till now, Mishra replied, “After taking the people of Kashmir into confidence, appropriate decision will be taken on Article 370. We want to take everyone along.”
“The inclination of Kashmiris towards the BJP, towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased. People in the Valley understand that some people for their political interests and separatist elements are trying to vitiate the atmosphere. We are trying to isolate those who are trying to prevent people of the Valley from joining the mainstream,” the NJP leader said.
Mishra, who is BJP’s in-charge for Haryana affairs for Lok Sabha polls, said the party’s candidates for all the 10 parliamentary seats in the state would be made soon.