Ajit Pawar’s statement exposes Adani’s intimate relationship with BJP: Kharge

Responding to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s statement that industrialist Gautam Adani was part of the high-level political talks between the BJP and Sharad Pawar-led NCP in 2019, AICC president and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that Mr. Pawar’s disclosure validated the Congress’s consistent views on the nexus between Mr. Adani and the BJP.

“We [the Congress] had opposed Mr. Adani’s intervention in politics long ago. On the one hand, he is looting the country and on the other, he is supporting the reactionary governments. He joined hands with the party whose ideology doesn’t match the ideology of India. He is supporting a party that is dividing people along communal lines. The BJP is also paying him back. It takes money from the crony capitalists to spend it in the elections and help them after coming to power. We have been opposing it,” Mr. Kharge said during his brief interaction with media persons at his residence in Kalaburagi on Thursday.

Speaking on the widening gap between the rich and the poor in India, Mr. Kharge said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had always supported the rich.

“The top 5% of people in the country hold 62% wealth of the country’s wealth and 50% poor hold only 3% of the country’s wealth. Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah have always supported the rich to become richer. We always told the BJP not to help only the top 10-20 industrialists but to focus on medium and scale industries and traders, hundreds of industrialists will develop. But the BJP is not doing it,” Mr. Kharge said.

When asked about Mr. Modi’s remarks that the Congress had always been against the reservation, Mr. Kharge hit back by stating that Mr. Modi belonged to the same ideology that had always opposed the Constitution of India that provided reservations to oppressed communities.

“They are the people who burnt the Indian Constitution [that provided reservations] at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi by stating it had not incorporated the ideas of Manusmriti. They don’t even accept the Indian national flag which has three colours. Reservation is a Constitutionally guaranteed right and it cannot be denied,” Mr. Kharge said.

Published - November 14, 2024 07:37 pm IST