Gujarat: Cong leader slams Modi govt over inflation, unemployment; says people unable to make ends meet

Congress leader Yashomati Thakur on Monday slammed the BJP government at the Centre for inflation and unemployment and said her party would continue to raise its voice for the countrys distressed citizens.Thakur, a former minister in Maharashtras previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government, also alleged the Centre was granting massive amounts of money to industrialist friends even as the common citizen was finding it difficult to make ends meet.We Congress are not scared of the Central government.

Congress leader Yashomati Thakur on Monday slammed the BJP government at the Centre for inflation and unemployment and said her party would continue to raise its voice for the country's distressed citizens.

Thakur, a former minister in Maharashtra's previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government, also alleged the Centre was granting massive amounts of money to industrialist friends even as the common citizen was finding it difficult to make ends meet.

''We (Congress) are not scared of the Central government. You are going towards dictatorship, and you believe that we can be silenced by threats. However, we are from the Congress, we can get our heads chopped off but will never bow,'' Thakur asserted. The Congress will continue to raise the truth before the public who feel the heat of inflation and unemployment, she said.

Taking a swipe at the Central government, she said, ''Our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modiji has two brothers, one is unemployment and the other is inflation. He never talks about them, nor does he turn back to look at them.'' Slamming the BJP government in Gujarat on the Bilkis Bano case, Thakur said the 11 convicts were released on the same day when the people celebrated 'Har Ghar Tiranga' (August 15). ''The then judge (in the case) said this is not Hindutva but a disgrace to Hindutva. If one cannot respect a woman, it cannot be called Hindutva,'' she said.

Quoting a research report about the Union government granting loans of Rs 20 lakh crore to a prominent industrialist, she said the common suffers while the Modi government was doling out such massive amounts to ''friends''.

Thakur said Union Minister Smriti Irani used to stridently protest while in the opposition when prices of gas cylinders touched Rs 400, but was silent when it had risen to Rs 1,000 per cylinder now.

The poor are making ends meet by filling petrol worth just Rs 20, while Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries (who got gas cylinders as part of the Central government scheme) had gone back to using fossil fuels due to cylinders becoming unaffordable, the Congress leader claimed.

This was part of the government's ''doob maro'' policy of ignoring citizens and letting them fend for themselves after winning polls with their votes, she alleged.

The Agnipath military recruitment scheme was an attempt to create a labour class while ignoring employment generation and job security, the Congress leader alleged.