Bhopal: While accusing the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh of all-round failure, former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday ripped into the administration’s anti-mafia drive, even as he slammed the Congress for its opposition to the recently ratified Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the imminent National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Speaking at the News18 Rising MP Summit in Bhopal, Chouhan reiterated his charge that the state government was targeting those associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party through the exercise to make Madhya Pradesh ‘mafia-free’.
The former CM also rejected talks of state BJP leaders feeling threatened, asserting that they were not intimidated even when Emergency was imposed by the-then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Chouhan alleged that under the garb of the anti-mafia drive, common people were being harassed by the administration. Even 50-60-year-old houses are being brought down by authorities and people are forced to live under the open sky in bone-chilling cold.
It’s a democracy and there is no place for vendetta, he said.
The BJP leader also slammed the Congress for its stand on CAA and NRC, saying the opposition to these steps is bizarre as they only promise safety and shelter to those religious minorities who faced persecution in neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Congress and other opposition parties are misleading the public for vote-bank politics, he claimed.
Protests have erupted in several parts of the country since the Narendra Modi government pushed the Citizenship Amendment Act through Parliament last month, that aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India before December 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Activists say the law will be followed by the counter-infiltration NRC exercise, which they fear has been designed to expel Muslims.
Chouhan said applications for citizenship are also considered from Muslims and cited the example of Pakistani singer Adnan Sami who secured Indian citizenship. “There are over 700 hundred Muslim brothers and sisters from across the globe who have been extended citizenship,” he said.
Chouhan argued that as both Houses of Parliament have cleared the CAA, no state has the right to stall the implementation of the legislation.
The BJP leader accused the ruling Congress of failing to fulfill most of its pre-poll promises including farm loan waiver, petrol-diesel price cut, unemployment allowance, etc, and alleged that the Kamal Nath government had turned the state into a centre of loot.
“When I see the state government hitting below the belt, anguish is natural, and we are committed to launch a decisive battle against the ruling party,” he said.
Chouhan slammed the registration of an FIR against party colleague Kailash Vijayvargiya for “inflammatory” comments, saying the senior politician was only protesting the administration’s high-handedness. He pointed out that an FIR was also lodged over a pro-CAA rally in Ujjain. “The administration is responding with FIRs to everything these days,” he said.
Chouhan replied to allegations that he was trying to hog the limelight by even protesting in areas under purview of senior party leaders such as Gopal Bhargava, saying that he was not in the hunt for any post and joins the struggle wherever there is injustice.
Rejecting the Kamal Nath government’s claims of inheriting empty coffers, Chouhan said the exchequer wasn’t any looted treasure which was spent completely when he was heading the government. “Revenue collection is a constant process and every month the government receives it. So the Congress government should stop using empty coffers as a jumla (fake claim).”
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