Modi slams Cong for 'hypocrisy' towards poor

Bhopal: In a veiled attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the previous government of indulging in hypocrisy, and said it used to recite the word 'poor' hundred times a day like a "song", but did not work for their welfare.

Speaking during a video interaction with Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) beneficiaries from Madhya Pradesh, he also said that there was vikriti' (distortion) in the system of the previous government.

Asserting that with the change in the functioning of the government now, the schemes were reaching the beneficiaries, Modi also said work was on to mitigate the problems being faced on the employment front.

"The schemes of the government are reaching the ground and are being implemented at a fast pace because of change in the functioning of the government. There was 'vikriti' in the previous government's system. They used to ask questions about the poor and also give answers themselves, he said.

He accused the previous government of keeping the poor and villagers away from basic amenities like roads, electricity, housing, cooking fuel, banking etc, and said, "They used to speak the word poor hundreds of times a day. They recited the word poor like a song, but did not adopt their welfare in practice. Such acts are called 'pakhand' (hypocrisy). They did not give these facilities to the poor but used to express false sympathy."

Talking about his government's measures, he said as many as 80 crore Indians received free ration during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and these included five crore people from Madhya Pradesh.

He described the coronavirus pandemic as the biggest disaster faced by humanity in the last 100 years, and said people should continue to wear masks, sanitize hands and maintain social distancing to check the spread of the virus.

He said that the fight against COVID-19 was more difficult for India than other parts of the world given the problems caused by large population, lives and jobs affected by migration in addition to the medical infrastructure woes.

"India gave the first priority to the poor in its strategy to combat the crisis due to coronavirus. Be it Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana or Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana, we thought about food and employment of the poor from day one itself, he said.

Modi said that the country gave priority to 'Made in India' while making all these arrangements against the

pandemic.