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The Bharatiya Janata Party launched a scathing attack on the Congress on Tuesday, alleging that the recent austerity guidelines issued by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was merely a case of 'bizarre tokenism to hoodwink the nation'.
Commenting on the various steps taken by senior Congress leaders, including party president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to cut down governmental expenditure, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters in New Delhi, "This is just hogwash to distract the nation from the issue of galloping food prices".
"While we do appreciate any endeavour to embrace cost-cutting measures across the board, this is a ludicrous display by Congressman to deflect our attention from the unprecedented price rise," he said.
He alleged that the United Progressive Alliance government is "attempting to ignominiously trivialise the severity of draught and the soaring food prices. This is an old practice of the Congress, which is trying to hijack the pain and the misery of the nation for its political ends".
Slamming the government for its failure to keep the prices of various essential commodities under control, Rudy claimed that soon, the common man will forget the taste of sugar and arhar daal.
Taking up the issue of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee missing several Cabinet meetings, Rudy said Mukherjee should address the issue of how much it cost the government when the minister failed to clear her own files.
"While the UPA government's advisory to the political fraternity is desirable, it would be prudent for the government to look into its backyard and be answerable for the thousands of crores wasted in overdue projects and wasteful expenses in power, irrigation, highways and other infrastructure projects," he said..
He alleged that the government's expenditure in various projects had escalated by a whopping Rs 29,234 crore.
"There are more than ten projects which are lagging behind for over ten years. Compulsive austerity is just a knee-jerk reaction of the government, which has failed to address the core issue of poverty and draught, coupled with astronomical hike in food prices," Rudy added.