Visakhapatnam: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday tore into the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh, saying it did only corruption and slammed it over the alleged farmer suicides in the state.
Addressing a public meeting in the port city here to commemorate the nine years of the BJP-led NDA government, Shah also credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring internal security and bringing pride to Indians all over the world.
“There is a government running here (headed) by Jagan Mohan Reddy. This government has in the last four years done nothing other than corruption and scandals,” the veteran BJP leader charged.
Questioning the YSRCP regime’s claims of being a farmer-friendly government, Shah alleged the state ranked third in the number of farmer suicides. Chief Minister Reddy should be “ashamed” of this, he added.
Claiming that Prime Minister Modi has ensured the country’s overall security, he said soon after “Pakistan-inspired” terrorists who had the habit of carrying out attacks in the country launched strikes in Uri and Pulwama, India retaliated by entering Pakistan to carry out surgical strikes and air strikes and “gave them a reply”.
Shah took potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for saying that blood will flow in Kashmir if Article 370 was rescinded but claimed that no untoward incident had occurred in the aftermath of the abrogation.
“These statements were proved wrong. Forget about blood, nobody even dared to do any atrocity there,” he added.
In the nine years of NDA rule, India’s stature has been growing globally and the Prime Minister is received with chants of ‘Modi, Modi’ wherever he went. This was a recognition of the 130 crore Indians, including those in Andhra Pradesh, Shah added.
He also charged that corruption running into several lakhs of crores of rupees happened during the 2004-14 Congress-led UPA regime.
Shah also appealed to the people of Andhra Pradesh to give at least 20 parliamentary seats out of the total 25 from the state in next year’s Lok Sabha polls to the BJP for Modi to return as the Prime Minister.
At the meeting, the Union minister exuded confidence that Modi becoming the Prime Minister with 300 Lok Sabha seats is imminent in 2024.
“Will you make Modi PM in 2024? Will you support BJP in 2024?” Shah asked the audience.
Listing the central government schemes and projects done for the state, he compared how the devolution of taxes and grants in aid rose from just Rs 78,000 crore during the UPA government between 2009 and 2014 to Rs 2.3 lakh crore between 2014-2019.
He said nearly Rs 5 lakh crore was given to AP and questioned whether any development work had occurred under Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government.
Further, Shah highlighted that there were only 4,000 km long national highways in AP which has now increased to 9,000 km in the past nine years under Modi’s rule as expenditure on road networks has gone up to Rs 3 lakh crore.
According to him, the state has also received another Rs 85,000 crore funds under the ‘Sagarmala’ project of the Centre aimed at modernising port infrastructure along the country’s coastline.
Renovating Vizag railway station with Rs 450 crore, establishing multiple national educational institutions, sanctioning Bhogapuram airport and developing a string of AP cities into smart cities are the other developmental works that the Union minister listed.
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