Updated by admin on
Friday, October 03, 2014 01:12 AM IST
Chennai:
Chennai: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched on October 2, 2014, was "nothing but Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan" of erstwhile Congress-led UPA Government, and was nothing new, said senior Congress leader and former union finance minister P Chidambaram.
Addressing partyworkers during Gandhi Jayanthi celebrations here, he said, "...Prime Minister has launched a new scheme called 'Swachh Bharat Abiyan,' which is nothing but our 'Nirmal Bharat Abiyan.' It is the very same scheme and nothing new," he added.
Chidambaram said, "Congress' Skill Development Mission is now BJP's Skill India scheme, Congress' financial inclusion is now BJP's Jan Dhan. All the schemes are the same. But the BJP is talking big about these schemes with advertisements, which we should have also done."
One should notice what the new government was doing, and what it wasn't doing as well, he said, pointing out that the 100 days employment scheme or NREGA was presently being destroyed step by step.
"Though the target is 100 days, this year the average was only 31 days. Some states have not even completed 31 days. The budget for the scheme has been reduced from Rs 40,000 crore to Rs 33,000 crore," Chidambaram said.
The Modi government had also imposed new restrictions like disqualifying physically challenged persons and old pensioners from being employed under the NREGA, he said.
The Minority Affairs Ministry had not done enough, he said. While listing out the welfare schemes of the previous government, he said, "But what they talk about now is 'Love Jihad.'
"What is wrong in a deprived community man falling in love with a girl of different community or religion or vice versa? The BJP now has two Muslim leaders, who have married Hindu women. Is that the Love Jihad of those days?"
On the political situation in Tamil Nadu following the conviction of AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa in the DA case, he said a vacuum was likely to emerge in the state politics, and he hoped his partymen would take advantage of it.
"DMK is no more an alternative for the AIADMK. Days are over when people thought DMK and the AIADMK were the alternative governments in Tamil Nadu. Congress would and should fill up the vacuum, which is likely to arise in the state," he said.
He said it was natural for the AIADMK workers to be upset and hold demonstrations after their leader had been convicted and jailed, but added that normalcy must return.
