‘Congress thinks of poverty only during elections’

According to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Congress party thinks about poverty eradication only during elections.

Addressing a ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’ of the BJP in Udupi on Tuesday, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken up several projects to eradicate poverty at every level. There is no need to bring a new programme for poverty eradication, she claimed. Referring to the Nyunyatam Aay Yojna (Nyay), proposed by the Congress president Rahul Gandhi, she said that those who didn’t eradicate poverty in 60 years are now planning a programme on poverty eradication and call it as ‘Nyay’. Rather than eradicating poverty, they have kept it as it is. The Congress thinks about poverty eradication only during elections, she said.

Earlier, addressing a press conference at Manipal, Sitharaman termed ‘Nyay’ as an election time promise. The promises made by the Congress during the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections have not yet been fulfilled, she said.

While speaking at the ‘Vijay Sankalp Yatra’, she said intelligence reports pointed to the possibility of Pulwama-like suicide attacks in other parts of the country. “Our Prime Minister showed zero tolerance for terrorism by doing an air strike,” she said. Such a step should have been taken after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. But the then Central government didn’t take such action.

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