BJP trying to intimidate people, says Kharge; calls for united fight for 'jal, jungle and zameen'

Raipur, Jul 7 (PTI) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused the ruling BJP of reneging on its pre-poll promises and asked people to remain united in the fight to protect their 'jal, jungle and zameen' (water, forest, land).

He alleged the BJP was trying to intimidate "everyone" in the country and misusing central probe agencies against its opponents.

Speaking at a public rally titled, 'Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan-Jai Samvidhan' at Science College Ground in Raipur amid heavy rains, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha claimed the poor are being "looted" under the Modi government.

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said he has time to visit foreign nations, but has no time to tour Manipur, which has seen ethnic clashes since May 2023.

When our party's 85th plenary session was held in February 2023 during the previous Congress government in the state, ED and IT raids were carried out at the premises of our leaders and workers at the behest of Modi ji and Shah in a bid to spoil the event, he claimed.

They tried to threaten our then CM and other leaders but people of Chhattisgarh didn't get scared and gave a befitting reply and the plenary session was successfully held, he said.

"The BJP is still trying to intimidate our leaders using central agencies like the ED and I-T, but we will never be scared. Our party leaders in Chhattisgarh, including former chief minister (Bhupesh Baghel), are being harassed (using probe agencies)," he told the gathering.

They (BJP) also tried to implicate Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, Kharge said, adding the BJP always tries to defame the Congress.

"It is their habit to intimidate everyone. You will survive only when you will not be scared. If we want to protect our jal, jungle, zameen (water, forest, land) then you all have to be united in the fight against them (BJP)," he insisted.

The BJP always speaks about making (Droupadi) Murmu ji and (Ram Nath) Kovind ji presidents of the country but did the party do all this to "snatch our assets, forests, water and land", Kharge asked.

"Today, people like Adani and Ambani have been coming here (Chhattisgarh) and occupying land. They are felling lakhs of trees (in forests for mines) and oxygen level is getting reduced. Modi ji has been destroying the lives of our tribal brothers and the people of Chhattisgarh," the Congress leader further alleged.

"Why is (Union Home Minister Amit Shah) Shah visiting Chhattisgarh again and again? Is this your home or your in-laws' place?... Lots of industrialists are coming only to loot coal and other mineral deposits in the state and they are not concerned about its people. Modi ji and Shah ji have been supporting them (industrialists). Shah has been visiting here to check out for natural resources," he alleged.

The previous Congress government (2018 to 2023) tried to protect the natural resources of the state, he said.

Kharge also said the cooperative university being set by Shah's cooperation ministry will have rich persons as directors.

"But when I was the cooperation minister in Karnataka, poor people could not become members so I used government money and made them members and then made them directors in the cooperative society. I dare you (Shah) to do this," he said.

Hitting out at Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Kharge said, "If they (PM and HM) say get up, he (Sai) gets up. If they say sit, he sits. He (CM) is very upset over it but what he can do. He has got the chair and does not want to leave it." "It is not his insult but the insult of the people of Chhattisgarh as our CM bows and salutes to them (Modi and Shah)," he added.

Rubbishing the BJP's oft-repeated term of "double engine" (signifying development when state and Union governments are from the same party), Kharge said, "What is a double engine? When one train is run using two engines then it is called double engine. But the Chhattisgarh CM talks to the PM and Shah with his head bowed. How is it a double engine if one is big and the other is small. This is just slavery." The BJP makes lots of promises before polls, but forgets them after coming to power, whereas the previous Bhupesh Baghel government worked for the welfare of farmers, labourers, tribals and every section of the society, he said.

"It had increased the minimum support price for paddy, waived loans, gave rights to tribals, started Swami Atmanand English Medium School and Haat Bazaar Clinics. What have these people (incumbent BJP government) done? They worked to stop whatever we did and are now scaring people," Kharge claimed.

Asserting that Modi's announcements were "lies", Kharge cited promises of Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of people, two crore jobs and doubling of minimum support price for farm produce.

Kharge also slammed the PM for not attending the two all-party meetings held with regards to the Pahalgam terror attack. It is shameful and a matter of disrespect to the people of India, he added.

Speaking about recent calls to drop "socialist" and "secular" from the Preamble of the Constitution, Kharge said the BJP's party constitution has the two words.

Showing a copy of the ruling party's constitution, he said, "Did my father write this? Who wrote this? When your party was founded in 1980, then it was written".

Kharge dared the BJP-RSS to remove the two words from the Preamble and asserted the entire nation would stand with his party to oppose any such move. PTI TKP RSY BNM