Dubbing the Cabinet expansion as a ‘bankruptcy of vision’, the Congress on Tuesday said the incompetent and non-performing ministers have not been punished or dropped.
“An important facet of this Cabinet expansion is the incompetent and non-performing ministers of the Union cabinet have not been punished or dropped, nor has anybody been rewarded. This according to us reflects a bankruptcy of vision and creation of futuristic leadership,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told the media in New Delhi.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also utterly failed to address the issues of governance and delivery.
“No attention has been paid towards fixing runaway inflation or creation of jobs by infusion of innovative leadership in the cabinet. Modi ji appears to be completely oblivious to the gloom in trade and business.. to successive contractors in core sector industry, to falling exports for now 17 months, crisis in the banking sector and a devaluing rupee,” he added.
Surjewala alleged that the hate mongers and those propagating the agenda of division and deception have been given protection in the cabinet.
“Had this not been true then ministers like Smriti Irani, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Balyan, General V K Singh, Mahesh Sharma, Giriraj Singh halfway dozen others would have definitely faced the acts (sic),” he added.
Surjewala alleged this unequivocally established the fact that this agenda was being propagated with active complicity of the prime minister himself.
“The NDA (National Democratic Alliance) allies have obviously been completely ignored and the entire exercise has been rendered cosmetic purely aimed at propagating the image of the prime minister as larger than life. Overall, it’s been greatly disappointing for the people of this country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati termed the expansion of the Union council of ministers as a drama and said giving representation to a couple of leaders from the deprived sections will not ameliorate the lot of those communities.
‘The expansion of the Narendra Modi ministry carried out today is nothing but a drama enacted especially before assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Previous Congress governments had enacted a similar drama...BJP is merely following Congress,’ Mayawati said in a statement.
‘After more than two years, giving some minor positions to a couple of leaders from the deprived and weaker sections will not have any impact on the lot of these communities nor will it improve their social and economic condition,’ she said.
It requires concrete and dedicated steps to uplift them but the Modi government is not concerned about it, the BSP chief said.
Mayawati alleged that since the Modi government has worked only for capitalists and neglected the poor, farmers, Dalits, backwards and Muslims in its two years in office, it has created hype about the expansion of the Union council of ministers.
Referring to Modi’s interaction with media on Monday, Mayawati said he has himself admitted that his government has not lived up to people’s expectations of controlling inflation and reducing unemployment.
She also contested Modi’s claim that development will be the agenda of his party in the UP polls and not caste or religion, saying the past record of BJP proved otherwise ‘as its development agenda has been limited to only that of capitalists’.
Mayawati said the Modi government is also faced with a serious charge of writing off Rs 200-crore fine imposed on Adani group by the forest and environment ministry and sought an explanation on the issue.
With inputs from PTI.
