Modi sold nation’s interest, says Sidhu
Sunday, 21/04/2019
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NEWDELHI: Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “ruined” government companies and “favoured” private firms in five years of his tenure and accused him of being “anti-national for selling the interest of the nation”. Sidhu said Modi should stop harping on the issue of nationalism to garner votes and talk about matters of national interest.
Sidhu said, “Modi is the business development manager of Ambani and Adani, as he has favoured them at the cost of staterun firms. ”The Congress has been attack ing the PM for “promoting crony capitalism and favouring his industrialist friends”. The government has, however, denied the charges.
Sidhu also alleged that while SBI and MTNL were accruing losses, PM Modi was endorsing private companies like Paytm and Reliance Jio: “Adani and Ambani accompanied the PM on foreign visits and 18 big projects, which should have ideally been given to government companies, were handed over to them.”
The Congress leader alleged that the “chowkidar (watchman)” took care only of the rich and ignored the rest 99% of the population. “And, the prime minister says he is the chowkidar of the nation. He’s the chowkidar of the top 1%. He never took chairmen of government companies along with him on his foreign tours. Are government firms not good enough?” Sidhu asked. The cricketer-turned-politician said farmers were asked to “give a blank cheque if they apply for a loan of ₹2 lakh. But you let businessmen like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya scoot off after looting banks”. He claimed government firms that were doing good before Modi became prime minister were now fighting for survival. “BSNL doesn’t have money to pay salary of its employees. HAL, which manufactured multi-role fighter Tejas and Dhruv helicopter, did not get the contract for Rafale. Is this your nationalism?” he asked.
