New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the decision to introduce a unified pension scheme for central government employees and sharply criticised the Congress party, asking it why it had not implemented its promise to restore the old pension system in Himachal Pradesh and the other states where it is in power.
At a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad sharply criticised Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge for his U-turn on the central government and said Prime Minister Modi was “sensitive” to public issues and took decisions in the public interest only after careful consideration.
The Modi government does not take “ad hoc decisions,” the former Union minister said, urging Kharge to tell the nation why his party had made a U-turn on its election promise to implement the old pension system after coming to power in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.
“The Congress has made the old pension system a big issue in Indian politics for the last two years. So much so that the Congress even made Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announce in the Himachal Pradesh elections that the party will implement the old pension system in the state if it comes to power,” Prasad said. “Will this Congress just make announcements or will it implement them too? The Congress in general and Rahul Gandhi in particular, please tell the nation whether you have implemented the old pension system in Himachal Pradesh as promised,” he said.
The BJP leader accused Gandhi of “bluffing” people by making false promises to them to get votes and asked him to stop the practice.
“We are proud of Prime Minister Modi for listening to the (central) government officials and understanding their concerns, setting up a committee to look into it and taking a meaningful decision. On behalf of the party, we thank the government and especially the Prime Minister for this,” he added.
Prasad said the Congress had become so tired of the “obvious falsehood” of its assurances on the pension scheme that it could not muster the courage to include it in its Lok Sabha election manifesto.
“Rahul Gandhi, what are you doing, brother? How much are you bluffing? Tell the truth sometimes. And if you say something, you should do it. If you can’t do it, then don’t say it,” he said.
“Rahul Gandhi, this is not the way to run the country. Governing India is a serious matter where decisions have to be taken after careful consideration. Ad hoc measures will not work here,” Prasad added.
In a post on X, Congress President Kharge said he was taking aim at the government, saying: “The ‘U’ in UPS stands for the Modi government’s U-turns! Since June 4, the power of the people has triumphed over the arrogance of the Prime Minister.”
However, the BJP claimed that the UPS had been in the planning stages since 2023 and the media also reported on it.
“Kharge ji, the unified pension scheme has been in the works since 2023, much before June 4, 2024…,” said Amit Malviya, head of BJP’s IT department, in response to Kharge’s post.
“You are the president of Congress. You cannot come across as so clueless and ill-informed. But the new, well-designed pension system has limited Congress’s scope for wasteful policies,” he said.
Published August 25, 2024, 1:57 p.m. IS
