Opposition joins ‘Revdi’ debate, hits back with ‘dostwaadi’ barb

Spread the love

By S Jha

New Delhi, August 12: The scale of ‘Revdi’ attack spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemingly left shell-shocked the Opposition-ruled States, and it took almost two weeks for a few of them to come to terms with the emerging narrative to hit back at the Centre with matching firepower.

On Friday, the Aam Admi Party (AAP), knowing well that the party is at the principal target of the Revdi attack, hit out at the Modi Government at the Centre, making a contrast between the “loan waiver of the businessmen” and “welfare schemes for the common men”.

Modi in his address made at the inauguration of the Bundelkhand Expressway had first hit out at Revdi (freebies) politics.

Subsequently, the communication firepower of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party seemed succeeding in portraying the Opposition-ruled states as enemy of India, taking parts of the country on the path of financial bankruptcy on the lines of Sri Lanka.

The Reserve Bank of India with its report on the state of fiscal health of the States, with 10 of them being in the precarious situations, set up the Revdi debate.

Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia on Friday sought to turn the corner on the Modi Government on the Revdi debate.

“The BJP Government is blinded by Dostwaad. The ‘Dostwaadi Government’ thinks waiving off taxes worth Rs 5 lac crore and loans worth Rs 14 lac crores for super rich friends would bring development but giving free-of-cost education-healthcare will destroy the nation. BJP’s Dostwaadi Government should stop demonising the poor by calling welfare schemes freebies, if the country is to be developed, then instead of waiving off loans and taxes worth lakhs of crores of super-rich friends, they need to invest in public welfare schemes,” Sisodia charged.

He further claimed “the Dostwaadi Government will forgive crores worth loans for friends but when farmers are unable to pay their loan installments, then the government is even ready to take over the farmer’s house and auction it”.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has also sought to counter-attack the Revdi missile aired by the BJP top guns by alleging that the Central Government has been imposing schemes on the States.

Punjab, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal seem to be the principal targets of the Revdi missiles of the Modi Government.

Ironically, the Opposition-ruled states barring Delhi (which is a Union Territory with an Assembly) are in the worst of the fiscal health, with their chief ministers regularly been pleading the Centre for bailouts.