Congress leader Shashi Tharoor,while campaigning for three Congress candidates in the city on Friday, taunted the BJP for its expert sloganeering.
The Lok Sabha MP, who was in Shillong to campaign for Ampareen Lyngdoh, WHD Syngkon and Manas Chaudhuri, said the saffron party made slogans like ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘Start up India’, but “the reality is sit down India and slow down India”.
Tharoor’s attack came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi fired cannonballs at the Congress and Mukul Sangma for lack of development in Meghalaya.
The senior leader from Kerala lauded the Congress for bringing stability in the state and appealed to the people to give it a chance to achieve better.
Highlighting the achievements of the UPA, Tharoor said it introduced banks for the poor, direct benefits transfer, bankruptcy code and insurance sector reforms.
The leader accused the BJP of “stealing” UPA schemes and initiatives like Aadhaar.
“Aadhaar was invented by the UPA and opposed by the BJP and now they have taken it to something that we never intended (it) would be compulsory and binding that would affect your lives if you don’t have it… BJP opposed everything when it was in the opposition and greedily stole it when they came to power. What initiative have they taken?”
The promise of 2 crore jobs to youths was not fulfilled as even 1 per cent of the youths have not got the jobs… Demonetisation is a bad idea and badly implemented. GST is a good idea but badly implemented,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress candidate from South Shillong Manas Chaudhuri said, “For five years, we have drought here. We have not received anything in terms of development.”
He pointed to the water shortage and blocked drains in the constituency and need immediate attention. Speaking about people first and people friendly government, he assured the people at the public meeting that he would be accessible to the people of the constituency.
Chaudhuri said he drafted a letter to the BJP high command in Delhi and said, “I told them ‘thank you for doing the favour of not giving me a ticket’.”