Holding the Congress responsible for promoting the “crisis of trust” in politics, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that people’s faith in political leaders had been eroded by the party’s failure to keep its promises. The BJP, on the other hand, had taken steps to build up people’s confidence by treating it as a challenge, Mr. Singh said.
Mr. Singh was addressing public meetings at Rajsamand and Nathdwara in Rajasthan after the BJP’s candidates filed their nomination papers there for the upcoming Assembly election. The Defence Minister said that it was the difference between words and deeds, exacerbated by the Congress, that had led to the people’s loss of confidence in the political system.
The people of Rajasthan were aware of how many promises made by the Congress before the 2018 Assembly election had actually been fulfilled, the Defence Minister said. “Whenever elections come, the Congress starts giving assurances. This kind of politics can help form the government, but it cannot build the society and the nation,” he said.
‘Buying voters’
The Ashok Gehlot government’s populist measures to distribute free mobile phones to women and supply LPG cylinders to Ujjwala Yoajana beneficiaries at a discounted rate amounted to an attempt to “buy the honesty of [the] State’s people”, Mr. Singh said.
The Defence Minister said that the Congress government had not only failed to maintain law and order in the State, but it was also unable to deal with its own internal conflicts and lack of discipline. While factionalism in the ruling party had affected the State’s governance, the rise in crimes and communal incidents had “destroyed peace” in the State, he said.
The political game
The upcoming Assembly election is no less than the ongoing Cricket World Cup, Mr. Singh said, adding that the condition of the ruling Congress was like that of the Pakistani cricket team. “The Congress is out of the game just at the start of the election, whereas the BJP is marching ahead like a champion team,” he claimed.
Making a reference to a purported “red diary”, in which sacked Minister Rajendra Gudha had made claims allegedly revealing the Chief Minister’s illegal financial transactions, Mr. Singh said that all its secrets would be made public once the BJP formed the government in the State.
The BJP has fielded sitting MLA Deepti Maheshwari and Kunwar Vishwaraj Singh of the erstwhile royal family of Mewar as its candidates from Rajsamand and Nathdwara, respectively.
