'Apples to tourism, what has PM Modi done for Himachal?' asks Congress
Shimla, May 22
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Himachal Pradesh on May 24, the Congress yesterday challenged him to come prepared with answers to questions on his contribution to the development of the state in the past 10 years.
“He should answer what he has done for apple growers, about their concerns over import duty on the fruit and the GST on the packaging material of the fruit. He must answer what he has done for the tourism sector and employment generation in the state,” said Alok Sharma, national spokesperson for the Congress, in a press conference here.
“Also, Modi should explain why the massive natural disaster that struck the state last year was not declared a national calamity. If such disasters strike Gujarat and Uttarakhand, the PM extends all possible help. Himachal was discriminated against just because here we have a Congress government,” he said.
Sharma claimed that the INDIA bloc was winning the elections hands-down and attacked the Prime Minister for his “unfortunate” speeches during the campaign. “The PM is not mentioning any of his policies or projects like Skill India, Start-up India, etc in any of his speeches. He is seeking votes on just Hindu-Muslim,” said Sharma.
“It’s so unfortunate that even after running the government for 10 years, the PM has nothing to say about his achievements and has to make such unfortunate speeches,” said Sharma.
Claiming that people had rejected the BJP’s agendas of fake nationalism, Hindu-Muslim and Pakistan, Sharma said the INDIA bloc, as per its internal survey, was all set to secure around 325 seats. “The BJP is going out on June 4 and the INDIA bloc is forming the new government,” he claimed.
