Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh addressing a press conference at AICC HQ in New Delhi on May 1, 2024. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
The Congress on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “failed” the country’s daughters by “rewarding” sexual harassment accused BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh with a Lok Sabha poll ticket for his son, and asked whether women will ever be safe in “Modi’s India”.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to Mr. Modi ahead of his visit to Ayodhya.
“Will women ever be safe in Modi’s India? Why did the PM lie to Ayodhya about ‘free’ electricity under the Surya Ghar Yojana? Why has Uttar Pradesh’s youth given up on the job market?” Mr. Ramesh said on X.
Elaborating on what he said were “jumla details”, the Congress leader said Mr. Modi had once again “failed” India’s daughters.
“Rather than punishing MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for his heinous crimes, the BJP has rewarded him with a ticket for his son Karan Bhushan Singh from the neighbouring Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat,” the Congress general secretary said.
“This has come as a slap in the face of all the women who put their careers at stake and slept on the streets for days, through sun and rain, in their fight for justice,” he said.
Mr. Ramesh said it had become clear that in “Modi ka Parivar”, ‘Nari Shakti’ was just a slogan that was projected while the ‘parivar (family)’ sheltered perpetrators of sexual violence, be it Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna or Singh, the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president.
‘Latest jumla’
Mr. Ramesh also alleged that the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana was Mr. Modi’s “latest jumla“.
“In their Ayodhya rallies, the BJP had boasted about “24-hour electricity, zero electricity bill, and earning from electricity from their free solar power scheme. In reality, however, citizens need to shell out at least ₹70,000 to install solar panels before they can benefit from the ‘free electricity’ that the Prime Minister had promised,” the Congress leader claimed.
He further claimed that the conditions in Uttar Pradesh’s job market had gotten so bad that young people had started to give up on looking for work.
Mr. Ramesh said, “Last year, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath promised that he would create two crore new jobs in the State over the next 3-4 years. This is the same promise that the Prime Minister had made in 2014 before he came to office. We know what followed — years of record unemployment and slow growth.”
