Congress Manifesto Makes ‘Traitors, Separatists’ Happy, Says Sushma Swaraj

PTI, Apr 3, 2019, 9:34 AM IST

Nagpur: Union Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday slammed the Congress’ election manifesto claiming it made “traitors and separatists happy”.

Earlier in the day, the Congress released its manifesto for the April-May Lok Sabha election. The 55-page document titled ‘Hum Nibhayenge’ (We will deliver) talks about doing away with the sedition law, as claimed by Union Minister Arun Jaitley in a press conference in Delhi.

Among other things, the Congress manifesto promises a sum of Rs 72,000 each to five crore poor families under the ‘NYAY’ scheme, filling up 22 lakh government vacancies, bringing a separate budget for farmers and fixing a single moderate GST rate.

Swaraj was addressing a BJP women workers’ meet here for the party’s Nagpur Lok Sabha candidate and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

“The Congress manifesto has made ‘deshdrohi’ (traitor) and ‘algavwadi’ (separatist) people happy. It is unfortunate for the country that on one side Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving a befitting reply to Pakistan’s terror attacks with surgical and air strikes. On the other hand, the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) is refusing to accept treason as a crime,” she said.

While the PM had taken back security provided to separatist leaders (in Jammu and Kashmir post the Pulwama terror attack), the Congress chief talked of continuous talks with them, the minister of external affairs said.

“This is the difference between chowkidar and rajkumar,” she said, adding that she was confident people would not vote for a party that sought to make the nation unsafe.

“I am confident people will re-elect Modi as PM because they know the nation is safe in his hands,” she said.

She said the Congress failed to corner Pakistan following the 26/11 terror raid on Mumbai in 2008 while the Modi government gave all powers to armed forces to retaliate following the Uri and Pulwama attacks.

She said India had isolated Pakistan post the Pulwama attack and the latter did not attend the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting as India was a special
invitee.

Swaraj said Gadkari had worked for the development of Nagpur, as well as the country, and asked people to re-elect him as their Lok Sabha MP.