Kamal Nath hits out at BJP over its claim on lifting people out of poverty

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Tuesday said the BJP has been talking about welfare of the poor even after 20-year rule in the state, which means either people did come out of poverty or people kept becoming poor during two decades of its regime.

In both circumstances, "this is the result of failure of the BJP government," Nath claimed.

The state assembly polls are due this year-end.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday released the Madhya Pradesh government's 'report card' from 2003-2023, saying the BJP government in these years successfully removed the BIMARU category (laggard) tag from the state, which, according to him, was a legacy of the Congress regime.

Asked about it, Nath told reporters, "The BJP has released a report card, instead they should have released their rate card...should have informed what the rates of all things are? They talk about the past 20 years, we talk about the next 20 years." Earlier this month, Nath had sought the divine intervention of Lord Mahakal at Ujjain to free Madhya Pradesh from the “50 per cent cut rule".

In a post on X on Tuesday morning, Nath said the BJP has been talking about “gareeb kalyan” (welfare of the poor) even after their 20-year rule in Madhya Pradesh.

“This simply means that either the people could not get out of poverty or the people kept on becoming poor during 20 years of BJP rule. In both these circumstances, this is the result of failure of the BJP government. They have failed in this report card. They are showing false development on papers but we are coming with a true guarantee," he said.

वो बीते 20 साल की बात कर रहे हैं… हम अगले 20 साल की।

20 साल बाद भी अगर वो ‘ग़रीब कल्याण’ की बात कर रहे हैं तो इसका सीधा मतलब ये निकलता है कि या तो भाजपा राज के 20 सालों में लोग ग़रीबी से बाहर नहीं निकल पाये या फिर नये ग़रीब बनते चले गये। इन दोनों ही परिस्थितियों में ये भाजपा…

— Kamal Nath (@OfficeOfKNath) August 22, 2023

The MP Congress chief said his party is working for the progress of every poor person, farmers, labourers, youth, women, small and big artisans and businessmen.

Nath said his party believes that nothing will happen by the "show off" of roads, bridges and "shoddy" schemes, unless there is development of individuals and happiness for everyone in the family.

“That is why, for the progress of every human being and to activate the work-business, a positive environment has to be created and then the development will start happening automatically,” he said.

Development is itself visible to the people, there is no need to "show off" by decorating a stage for it, Nath added.

While releasing the 'report card' of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, Union minister Shah said MP came into existence in 1956 and since then, except for five-six years, Congress ruled the state till 2003, but the state remained BIMARU during their regime.

“However, the BJP government has successfully brought the state out of the BIMARU tag and put it on the path of development by implementing various welfare schemes,” he said.

He demanded that the opposition Congress give its report card of ruling the state for nearly 53 years.

The BIMARU acronym has often been used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, to imply that these states lagged in terms of economic growth, health care, education, and other indices.