Rajasthan: Congress releases ‘Aarop Patra’; exposes failures of the BJP govt

All the 195 Congress candidates that are contesting the December 7 Assembly elections in Rajasthan are now armed with a very well researched document called the  Aarop Patra or the charge sheet. The Congress has sent this ‘Aarop Patra’ to its candidates and the party’s cadre to use it as a campaign literature that would expose the BJP’s “ mis-governance”.

“This 21-page document is good enough to question the failure of the government on such issues as the economy, budget, agriculture, farmers, women security, electricity, roads, education, tourism industry and corruption which  the BJP will have to answer,” said Rafeek Khan, the Congress candidate from Adarsh Nagar constituency of Jaipur.

Rafeek Khan said that the BJP’s social media is lying about the achievements of the  Vasundhara Raje government, the PCC President Sachin Pilot had asked 37 questions that the BJP failed to reply. The people were misled by publicizing the achievements of the BJP government through a ₹160 crore media blitz, but the party nor the government could answer the 37 questions that the Congress asked.

The documents prepared with enduring effort by the Pradesh Congress team led by Archana Sharma, the party’s spokesperson and vice president, tell its own tales about the farmer's grievances and the unemployment. It’s the tale of unfulfilled promises made in the manifesto.

“The Congress since 1998 has been giving its manifesto to the state government’s bureaucrats with a request to follow it. It’s the right of a government in power to tell the officials what it wants to achieve after gaining the people’s mandate. The manifesto is the commitment made to the people and successive Congress governments have been achieving what it promised. The BJP too had its manifesto, but it does not want to talk about it as it has failed to fulfil the promises made to the people. The biggest bluffs were on the employment front and the promises made to the farmers on purchased prices on their products and also on the fertilizer. The urea was hoarded by the fertiliser dealers and when they demanded urea, they had to face lathis,” said Pilot.

Pilot said that when the Chief Minister took out her Gaurav Yatra, she had to face the wrath of the people, who raised their voices against the failed promises and the corruption. He said that the Chief Minister, on realising the mood of the people and the anti-incumbency factor, started pleading with the people to give her government another chance to fulfil all the promises.

The ‘Aarop Patra’ points towards the biggest bluff given to the people on the eve of the 2013 elections when they were promised 15 lakh jobs. Instead, only one lakh jobs were provided. The investments from the private sector were not forthcoming. The same angered youth are now questioning the BJP government. In five years, the number of youth voters has increased by about eight lakhs. The youth who were misled have become the most vocal critic of the BJP and this is reflected in the large-scale turn out of the youth in the elections campaigns.

“Our chargesheet only has issues which are largely related to the masses. The BJP in a systematic manner cut down thee working days of MNREGA. It’s a centrally-sponsored scheme, but with a view to systematically destroy this rural employment schemes, the people were not given jobs. Only 67% man-days were created and this resulted in the crash of the rural employment programme. This was nothing less than a criminal act,” stressed Pilot.

Pilot also said that the crime bureau report suggests that the crime increased manifold during the BJP rule and the poor policing was the cause of the rising crime. The state government boasts of creating better water resources management. But the fact remains that ₹10,000 crore worth of the drinking water scheme could not even take off.

“Corruption was rampant and the biggest scam was the ₹45,000 crore mining allotment scam. Even the Bajri mining scam caused a huge loss to the exchequer. The BJP government thrived on the scams like LED purchase, the purchase of garlic etc. These were the questions that I asked in the past few months. But a deaf government never answered to any one of them,” added Pilot.

The Congress is going to the poll with this document. It also mentions the failed policies of the Modi government which would be highlighted during the campaign.