Delhi deputy CM Manish SisodiaNEW DELHI: A day after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman charged chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of giving a “perverse twist” to the debate on freebies, deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Friday accused her of “scaring people” by claiming that spending government money on public welfare would destroy the country’s economy. Sisodia urged the Centre to stop “demonising the poor” by calling welfare schemes “free ki revadi” and invest in citizens. “The Dostwadi (crony capitalism) model of BJP waives loans of lakhs of crores of rupees of its friends, but deprives the common man of facilities like health and education. They do Dostwadi politics and we do politics for the common people,” he said. Kejirwal attacked the Centre saying “Pariwarwad” and “Dostwad” had devoured the country. “Now it will not work. We will finish Pariwarwad and Dostwad. India will not stop now, it will move forward. India will become the best nation in the world,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, adding that the entire world was adopting the “Delhi model”. Sisodia said Delhi government was “revenue surplus” despite providing free power and water, pilgrimage to senior citizens and bus travel facilities to women while all BJP-run states were in deficit. “BJP terms welfare schemes free ki revadi, but we call it investing in our people. I urge them to invest in the citizens instead of playing Dostwadi politics,” he added. Accusing the BJP government of waiving taxes worth Rs 5 lakh crore and writing off bad loans of Rs 10 lakh crore of “friends of those who are in power”, Sisodia said state-run schools and hospitals were being intentionally destroyed to bring in private players. “They do not believe in building government hospitals, providing free medicines and conducting free lab tests in government hospitals. They wilfully kept government hospitals in an abysmal condition so that people had no choice but to go to expensive private hospitals,” Sisodia alleged. Reiterating that all developed nations invested in their citizens, Sisodia said at least 39 countries give free education to children. “Developed nations give 100% free healthcare to all their citizens, provide free potable water and deposit money in a child’s account under various welfare schemes,” he claimed. “Take any index of countries on parameters like healthcare and education and you will find India at the bottom,” Sisodia added. AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh urged the Centre to call a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue of inflation and waiving loans for the rich. “AAP will not let this dual policy of the Modi government continue. We won’t let the super-rich be portrayed as saints when taxpayers are being demonised,” he said. FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebookTwitterInstagramKOO APPYOUTUBE
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/stop-demonising-the-poor-manish-sisodia-to-centre-on-freebies/articleshow/93530413.cms
