Bhopal, Aug 22: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday castigated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan saying they could reach this height only because of the Congress.
It was Congress that fought for the country’s independence and protected the Constitution of India, he added.
Addressing a poll rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar, the veteran Congress leader said the BJP often asks what has the Congress done in the past 70 years.
He further said in 1956, the literacy rate of the country was at 18.3 per cent, which the Congress took up to 74 per cent in 2014. Women literacy was at seven per cent at the time, which reached 65 per cent by 2014, Kharge said.
“Today, I will tell you what the Congress has done in 70 years. Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, today if you are Prime Minister and Chief Minister, it is because of the Congress. The Congress made the constitution considering people of every section,” Kharge said.
He was reacting to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the Congress should respond to what they have done in Madhya Pradesh for the last 53 years. Notably, Shah has asked the Congress to present its report of 53 years of rule in Madhya Pradesh (from 1956 to 2003).
Responding to that, Kharge on Tuesday counted several developments done during the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. “Who brought AIIMS to Bhopal? Who established IIT and IIM in Indore? Who established Rani Laxmi
Bai college in Gwalior? And who established BHEL in Bhopal? I can count the number of establishments during the Congress rule in Madhya Pradesh, but I do not believe in such things,” he added.
He further said despite ruling in Madhya Pradesh for more than 18 years, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was asking for the report card of the Congress. “Narendra Modi was CM of Gujarat and for the last nine years he
has been the Prime Minister. Almost half of 53 years, but still Gujarat is lacking in development. Here in Madhya Pradesh Chouhan has been CM for 18 years , but the condition of people remains the same where Congress
government has left.”
