AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad today demanded to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi why the ersthwhile BJP governments had "failed" to develop Jharkhand in the past 14 years.
"The Prime Minister talks about 14-18 years phase being the most crucial phase of human beings as well the state. But we would like to know why the BJP, which had ruled Jharkhand for the maximum time of 14 years failed to develop it despite the NDA being at the Centre as well (till 2004)," Prasad said at a press conference here.
Hitting back at Modi's address in Dhanbad yesterday that the next five years are crucial for Jharkhand just as an adolescent for laying a strong foundation for the next 100 years, the Rajya Sabha member alleged, "The BJP did not do anything during its rule in Jharkhand in the past 14 years."
Picking up Modi's assertion that Jharkhand would get Rs 20,000 crore as royalty following the Centre's coal auction decision, Prasad asked, "What is your (Centre's) coal policy. Where will you get Rs 20,000 crore from? You did not tell that."
Responding to Modi's attack on the nationalisation of banks that did not profit the poor, he claimed that even US President Barak Obama had praised it when former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been to Washington.
"Obama had praised it because nationalisation of banks helped India ward away the economy meltdown when the world faced downturn," claimed Hariprasad, the Congress incharge for Jharkhand Affairs.
"The pradhan sevak (Prime Minister) talks about infrastructure development like education and health. But they lag even in Gujarat where the UN multi-dimensional poverty index says 41 per cent of the population are under below poverty line," Prasad claimed.
The Congress leader further charged that the Centre was attempting to do away with the pro-poor MG-NREGA.
Rebuffing Modi's claim that the Monday turnout in Srinagar was the largest since 1983, Prasad claimed that such crowds had been witnessed during AICC President Sonia Gandhi and ex-PM Manmohan Singh's visit to Lal Chowk and also during the visit of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
