AAP-Congress pact a sham: Anurag Thakur

Jalandhar, April 21

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur today said the AAP-Congress alliance was a sham as the parties attacked each other in the state and embraced in Delhi.

He said the INDIA bloc had anti-national forces with an aim to weakening the country. Taking a dig on AAP, he said the party had started the ‘khel’ (game) of drugs, extortion, gang wars and corruption and instead of the electoral promise of making Punjab “Nasha-mukt”, they had made the state “Nasha-yukt”.

Thakur said this while addressing a press conference in Jalandhar for BJP candidate Sushil Rinku.

Thakur said, “In the state, the AAP is bent upon tearing into the Congress and in Delhi, it’s embracing the party. Sunita Kejriwal shares the same platform with Sonia Gandhi. This alliance isn’t a ‘gathbandhan’, it’s a ‘thagbandhan.’”

He added, “Anti-national forces are also in this alliance. They are taking help of organisations like the SDPI and PFI for elections and enabling joining of people in their party in Wayanad and Delhi, who are in favour of the tukde-tukde gang. Now, they will also side with anti-Punjab and anti-national forces in the state.”

Thakur also reiterated, “When the threat of war looms on the entire world, Rahul Gandhi says nuclear weapons must be finished. The country needs a strong leadership, military and arsenal, which Modi has provided. But Rahul Gandhi wants to weaken it.”

Questioned on the farmers’ agitation, Thakur said, “My request to farmers is that the Modi government is in favour of farmers. The government listened to them, made a committee, engaged in a dialodue and accepted most of their demands. Procurement, compensation and welfare schemes in the Modi era have far surpassed those compared to the Congress era. Farmers should rise above politics.”

Speaking on many outsiders in the BJP list, Thakur said, “They have spent lives serving society. The BJP’s family is expanding.”