Datia (MP): Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of toppling governments in different states, including the Kamal Nath-led dispensation in Madhya Pradesh in 2020, using illegitimate means.
He was speaking at a public meeting at Indergarh in Sewda assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh's Datia district ahead of the November 17 elections.
"In 2018, you elected a Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. They (the BJP) lured Congress MLAs, bribed them to bring it down," Kharge alleged.
The BJP formed a "stolen government" not only in Madhya Pradesh but also in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand, he said.
Other people commit petty thefts, but the BJP people commit big robberies to change governments, the Congress chief said. Kharge also targeted the ruling BJP over the incident of a man urinating on a tribal person in Sidhi district, a video of which went viral. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan later washed the victim's feet, but washing the feet will not do anything. Remove this person's poverty, give him food, clothes and a house to live in, he said.
The Narendra Modi government at the Centre was opposing the demand of caste census, Kharge said, adding that a Congress government will certainly carry out such a census "which will benefit all sections of society." "A few people are instigating the public by claiming that such counting will benefit only a few sections of society, " the Congress chief said.
He also accused prime minister Modi of making false election promises. During elections, Modi calls himself the son of the poor and says his mother used to wash utensils in other people's houses. Many women in the country are still supporting their families by washing utensils in other people's homes and their children do not get nutritious food, he said.
As many as 30 lakh government posts are vacant in the country and only 10,000 to 20,000 people are being recruited, Kharge claimed, adding that to show off, appointment letters are given to a few youths by organising big programmes. Addressing an election rally in Sheopur later in the day, Kharge alleged that government agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department, Central Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence Bureau were unnecessarily harassing Congress leaders at the behest of the ruling BJP at the Centre in order to defeat the grand old party in the elections.
But the Congress will continue to do its work without fear, he asserted.
Claiming that many tainted leaders have been inducted into the BJP, the Congress president said, "Instead of putting the wrongdoers into jail, they are being put in the BJP's dry cleaning machine to give them a clean chit." Kharge announced that the Congress will conduct an inquiry into the Vyapam scam, paper leak scam and other alleged irregularities during the BJP rule if it returns to power in Madhya Pradesh.
