Oppn hits back at Modi as row on sops heats up

Congress leaders on Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of the party making false promises to voters, citing the Centre’s data to highlight its performance in the three states where it is in power, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the Congress was facing a crisis of credibility.
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Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar posted on social media, “As per the data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Karnataka’s GSDP growth for 2023-24 is 10.2% surpassing the national average of 8.2%. Now, These are facts. These facts are backed by figures. These figures are supported by credible sources. The question is: Do these facts and figures even reach the Union Govt? or these facts do not reach those who formulate tweets for the highest offices at the Centre?”
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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who will contest for a Lok Sabha berth from Wayanad, countered the PM’s claims in a long post on X, saying, “Mahatma Gandhi used to say, “Truth is God.” “Satyameva Jayate” written in the Mundaka Upanishad is our national motto. These mottos establishing truth became the ideals of the Indian freedom movement, the reconstruction of India and public life. In a country where truth is the basis of thousands of years of culture, a person sitting on the highest position should not resort to untruth. The allegations made by the Prime Minister against the Indian National Congress are far from the truth.”
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“The Congress Party has started fulfilling the promises made to the people in any state as soon as it formed the government, without waiting for the next elections. Whether it is Karnataka, Telangana or Himachal Pradesh, the public money is being put in the pockets of the people through guarantees every day in the states ruled by the Congress. The Prime Minister has understood that his words no longer hold any value in front of the people of the country. Recently, ‘100 days plan’, ‘taking the opinion of 20 lakh people for the roadmap of 2047’, ‘two crore jobs every year’, ‘100 smart cities’, ‘bringing back black money’, ‘reducing inflation and unemployment’, ‘doubling the income of farmers’, ‘bringing the rupee at par with the dollar’ and ‘bringing good days’… these were such promises which have been proven false and now the people of the country have no faith in such promises,” she said.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri slammed the Congress on Saturday for making up “lies” and “fabricated figures” to create a narrative against the government and its policies.
“Congress Party and Mr Kharge seem to be oblivious of the changes that have transformed the lives of Indians for the better. Policies of inclusive development anchored in the vision of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ under the guidance of PM @narendramodi,” he said.
In a series of posts on X, he said the Congress follows a “classic shoot and scoot brand of social media policy based on lies, fabricated figures & fake data” and its senior leaders did not check facts before going public.
Puri said there has been significant employment growth over the years and employment has increased by nearly 36%, adding around 170 million jobs between 2016-17 and 2022-23. “We are on our way to becoming the world’s 3rd largest economy very soon from the 11th spot their famed economists and policies left us in 2014. While providing direct & indirect employment opportunities to our youth India’s GDP grew at an average rate of over 6.5% during the same period. Indian labour market indicators show that the unemployment rate has declined to 3.2% in 2022-23,” he said.
BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sudhanshu Trivedi said while the BJP has earned credibility for fulfilling promises under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Congress faces a “credibility crisis”.
“We believe in the creation of wealth and distribution. The Congress stands for creation of corruption and destruction of wealth,” he said, claiming there were dozens of instances of “unfulfilled promises” made by Congress-led governments in different states.
The minister claimed unemployment rate has declined from 17.8% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2022-23 and EPFO has reached 13.2 million subscribersin 2024 while the gig economy workforce is expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30.
As the campaign for Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls gained momentum, PM Modi said on Friday, “The Congress party is realising the hard way that making unreal promises is easy but implementing them properly is tough or impossible. Campaign after campaign they promise things to the people, which they also know they will never be able to deliver. Now, they stand badly exposed in front of the people! #FakePromisesOfCongress.”
Modi’s allegation, in form of a series of tweets, came after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge advised party units to announce poll sops based on fiscal viability, warning that an unplanned approach could lead to financial difficulties and negatively impact future generations. His comments had come in the context of reports that Karnataka could review its free bus travel scheme for women.