BJP praises Budget, slams AAP on housing in Delhi; Ravi Shankar Prasad targets Sonia remark on Murmu

In the Rajya Sabha, Kiran Choudhry attacked the AAP for claiming that Haryana was supplying poisonous water to Delhi. She said Haryana provides Delhi 1,045 cusecs of water instead of 719 cusecs that is Delhi’s share. She asserted that the water supplied to Delhi comes through an uninterrupted canal with no room for contamination. “Where did the Rs 6,000 crore they spent on Yamuna go,” she asked, adding that only 17 sewage treatment plants of the total 37 in Delhi were working.

The second speaker for the BJP in the Lok Sabha was Ravi Shankar Prasad, who hails from Bihar which goes to polls later this year. In the Rajya Sabha, Neeraj Shekhar of the BJP, again from Purvanchal, was the second speaker.

Bidhuri commended the government for having shown due respect to Dr BR Ambedkar through measures like development of Panchteerths (five places of pilgrimage) dedicated to India’s first law minister.

He said the government had worked for farmers and had also conferred the Bharat Ratna on farmer leader and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.

Bidhuri attacked the AAP for “depriving the poor people in Delhi of houses by not implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Taking another dig at the AAP, Bidhuri said while Modi was constructing houses for slum dwellers in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal had splurged Rs 179 crore on constructing a “sheesh mahal (lavish house)” for himself.

Bidhuri said the map of the renovated Delhi CM residence was not approved, and that 21 bungalows, including that of a judge, were demolished for the “sheesh mahal”.

Both Bidhuri and Neeraj Shekhar accused the AAP government in Delhi of not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the city.

Countering the AAP’s charge that the BJP had no leader in Delhi, Bidhuri said the party had Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “the most popular leader in the world”.

He said Modi built peripheral roads on all sides of Delhi despite the AAP government not paying its share of funds needed for it. He laid down micro-details of projects started or completed in Delhi and accused the AAP of spending Rs 24 crore on advertisements. Bidhuri said the BJP would rid the Capital of the problem of pollution.

Shekhar said in the Rajya Sabha that during the COVID period, directions were given to send back Purvanchalis because “they were spreading the infection”. “Today you (AAP) need their votes, so you are standing with them,” he said.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, in his speech, obliquely attacked Congress MP Sonia Gandhi for calling President Droupadi Murmu “poor lady”. He claimed that poor treatment was also meted out to the first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who came from Bihar.

He referred to a book by journalist Durga Das and said Jawaharlal Nehru did not want Dr Prasad to be made the President, and that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Azad supported Dr Prasad.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was made to sign the Emergency declaration without the Cabinet approval, adding that “disrespecting the President was nothing new for the Congress”.

Accusing the Opposition of spreading canards that the government would change the Constitution, Prasad said those who claim to stand by the Constitution should learn to respect the President.

He said the investigation into the Maha Kumbh stampede was pointing to a conspiracy, and once it’s completed, “some people would feel the heat”. He asserted that the Opposition “disliked” the Maha Kumbh and also Sanatana Dharma.

Prasad said the Narendra Modi government had brought the economy from “Fragile Five” to ‘top five”, and said 50% of the global digital payments happen in India today. Countering the Opposition’s claim that the budget focused on poll-bound Delhi and Bihar, Prasad said that the MPs should support joint polls.

“I am proud of being a Purvanchali,” Prasad said, underlining that the budget had talked about the development of eastern states. Contrasting today’s Bihar with the 15 years under the RJD, Prasad sought to know whether the Opposition had a problem with the development of Bihar today.