‘Congress offering lip-service to poor’

After Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching a personal attack on him, the government on Tuesday slammed him for stalling the “pro-poor” legislative bills.

Union minister for parliamentary affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of offering only “lip-service to the poor”. He sought the Congress’ support for passing bills pending in Parliament.

“You (Congress) have been attacking the Prime Minister all these days and at times even personally. You have been enjoying it all these days. Do whatever you want. But do not attack the poor by stalling Parliament and the bills that will affect them. You ruled the country for about 50 years and the poor remained poor. Our government is determined to change this,” Mr Naidu said.

Mr Gandhi on Friday had accused the Prime Minister of launching personal attacks at him in his speech in the Lok Sabha.

He had said, “Do as much personal attacks as you want, but do not crush the poor, the weak for whom I speak (sic)”.

Mr Naidu said a number of schemes have been launched by the NDA government for them. “They are testimonials to the inclusive governance agenda of Mr Modi,” added Mr Naidu.

He added that the schemes were aimed at helping different sections of society, eliminating corruption and helping the government to adopt a targeted approach.

“Everyone agrees that with the implementation of a well-designed GST, there will be an increase of 1.5 to 2 per cent in GDP growth. This increase will make the government help the poor more through more welfare and development activities. So please support all these bills and help the government to help the poor,” added Mr Naidu.