Former Union minister says BJP never promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in every bank account
Kalraj Mishra claimed that the Opposition parties were spreading disinformation to mislead the public.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister Kalraj Mishra on Saturday said his party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in every Indian’s bank account. Mishra alleged that Opposition parties were spreading disinformation to mislead the public.
“I want to clarify that we [the BJP] never made any Rs 15 lakh promise,” Mishra said while addressing a press conference in Panchkula on the 39th foundation day of the BJP, according to PTI. “In a public address [ahead of 2014 polls], our leader [Modi] said that if black money stashed abroad comes back, an estimated Rs 15 lakh can be given per family. But this was never mentioned in our party’s manifesto.”
Mishra claimed that Centre had given people benefits of more than Rs 15 lakh through various schemes.
He said the Congress, that has accused the Centre of committing irregularities in the Rafale jet deal, was “in the habit of speaking lies”. The former Union leader also criticised the Congress’ minimum income support scheme called Nyay.
“They were in power for 10 years, why did they not think about the poor then?” Mishra said. “Moreover, they have not yet explained the process how they will give this amount. They made promises in 2004 and 2009, but failed to fulfil those.”
The BJP leader also refuted claims that Modi’s “Congress Mukt Bharat” slogan is a call to eliminate the Congress party. “It was to rid the nation of corruption and their policies and we were committed to end this,” he said.
Mishra is the official in-charge of the party’s operations in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls. The party has retained five sitting MPs in Haryana and fielded a state minister in the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha, PTI reported. Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha constituencies. Th elections in the state will be held on May 12.
In his 2014 election campaign, Modi had said he would bring back black money stashed abroad, and the amount of such money was so high that it would be equivalent to each person getting Rs 15 lakh in their accounts.
In December 2018, Union minister and Republican Party of India President Ramdas Athawale had said that people will slowly get Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts, “as promised by Modi”. The minister had also accused the Reserve Bank of India of not giving the money despite being instructed.