UPA, corruption synonymous; PM Modi believes in zero tolerance towards graft: BJP

PTI, Dec 16, 2024, 7:46 PM IST

New Delhi: The BJP slammed the Congress on Monday over the alleged corruption during its rule, saying former prime minister Manmohan Singh considered graft a “compulsion of the coalition” while PM Narendra Modi believes in zero tolerance towards it.

Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on ‘Supplementary Demands for Grants for the year 2024-25’, BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said the opposition alleges the government is not doing justice to the non-BJP ruled states.

But they should know that the government has given more than Rs 5 lakh crore to the states for centrally-sponsored schemes, he said.

Jaiswal said the NDA government is giving to states what used to be the budget of India during the UPA government led by “so-called” economist prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The BJP MP said the Modi government gave about Rs 4.5 lakh crore as a subsidy to the poor and farmers of the country in 2024-25, while in 2021-22 the government gave a subsidy of Rs 7.57 lakh crore.

“During the UPA regime, when the then prime minister was asked about corruption, he used to say that there are some compulsions of coalition ‘Dharma’. But our prime minister (Modi) talks about zero tolerance for corruption. This is the difference between the UPA/INDIA and NDA alliance.” He said during the UPA years, the alliance had become so infamous due to corruption in Central and various state governments, that the Congress changed its name to ‘INDIA’ (bloc).

Referring to the amount deposited directly in the bank accounts of farmers, he said Rs 3.46 lakh crore was released to farmers through direct benefit transfer and this entire amount reached their accounts.

On the other hand, a Congress prime minister had admitted that during his tenure only 15 paise out of Re 1 reached the people, the MP said.

Jaiswal said there is no allegation of corruption of even a penny against any minister in the BJP-led government while graft was rampant in the state governments led by INDIA bloc parties, including the Trinamool Congress.

Slamming the grand old party, the BJP MP said the way the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Rashtriya Janata Dal have talked about changing the leadership of the opposition alliance, the Congress’ number of MPs will come down to single digits if that is implemented.

Referring to the work of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he said that during Vajpayee’s time, India was becoming the fastest-growing economy but economist prime minister Manmohan Singh brought it to the lowest rung by the end of his term.

It will also be recorded in history how a poor tea seller has achieved success by working hard to ensure that India becomes the third largest economy in his third term, he said.

One ‘Narendra’ had predicted years ago that India would become a world power and today another ‘Narendra’ (Modi) is fulfilling that dream, Jaiswal said.

He said no matter how many obstacles are placed in the way, India will become a developed nation.