Congress Spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday attacking, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday termed him as the “sapnon ka saudagar” (merchant of dreams). He alleged that the Prime Minister had not fulfilled the promises he had made to the people of Himachal Pradesh during his 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign.
“In 2014, Mr. Narendra Modi came as a merchant of dreams and made several attractive promises. Today the people of ‘Dev Bhoomi’ Himachal want to know what happened to those promises,” he said.
Giving detailed information as to when and what promises Modi had made back in 2014, Surejewala said that at a rally in Solan on 29 April 2014, Narendra Modi had promised a hike import duty on apples to protect the local apple orchards. But if the current status is evaluated, more than three lakh tonne of apples are being imported from US, China and New Zealand. Can he explain it? he asked.
Further taking a jibe at the Prime Minister and his false promises, Surjewala continued that Modi had also promised to make Himachal Pradesh a paradise of tourism, on the same day in a different rally, but till date no funds were released by the centre for the cause, nor any new projects were taken up to develop tourism in the state.
“In another rally at Mandi on April 29, 2014, Modiji said his government would build Himalayan rail network from Chandigarh to Ladakh. After 41 months, the Railway Ministry says they have no such plans. Why such falsehood?” he questioned the Prime Minister.
Reminding about another recent promise made by Narendra Modi, the Congress leader pointed out that on 27 April 2017, Modi had announced that under the ‘Udaan’ scheme an air ticket from Delhi to Shimla would cost just Rs 2,036, but this scheme was never implemented till date. Quoting the words of Narendra Modi, Surjewala said that “Modiji had said that now even persons who wear ‘hawai chappals’ (those not quite well-off) can now fly in ‘hawai jahaaz’ (airplane). But after six months of this announcement, the reality is that mostly there is no flight between Delhi and Shimla or if there is one, the fare is over Rs 15,000.”
In an attempt to pull down the BJP, confident on winning the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh due on 9 Nov, the Congress spokesperson said that the real face of BJP has been revealed now and the people of Himachal Pradesh will give a befitting reply to the party for giving long speeches and not doing anything.
The 68 constituencies in Himachal will go to polls on 9 Nov and the results will be announced on 18 Dec, along with the results of Gujarat assembly polls.