Government closing projects in Rae Bareli, Amethi: Congress

The Congress on Thursday accused the government for indulging in politics of vendetta by closing down the Central projects in Rae Bareli and Amethi — Lok Sabha constituencies of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively. The charge was squarely rejected by Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress had won these two seats in Uttar Pradesh during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP and its alliance partner had won 73 of the 80 seats in the state. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said a branch of Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Information in Amethi has been closed down.

He further said that during the last two years, a food park project was stopped, Hindustan Paper Mill in Jagdishpur closed down as also a Discovery Park meant for farmers. “This is the worst form of politics. By shutting down projects in the constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, you are taking revenge against people who elected them,” Mr Tiwari said.

He also alleged that as BJP was talking of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ (Congress free India), it was also trying to close down institutions in the names of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

“You may try hard, but you cannot remove references to their sacrifices from history. When history will be read, you will appear as the villain,” he added.

Supporting him, Rajeev Shukla (Congress), in an apparent reference to the electoral loss of Smriti Irani against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, said it has been observed that this government was working with “a sense of revenge”.