Cong's 1/3rd PM jibe on Modi's visit to Varanasi

June 18, 2024 14:05

On a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his first event in Varanasi after the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress Tuesday said the people of his constituency gave a vote of no-confidence in him as he barely managed to edge past his Congress rival after trailing in multiple rounds of counting.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also posed a set of nine questions to the prime minister on issues concerning his constituency and asked why they have not been addressed.

Ramesh asked the PM why river Ganga is "dirtier than before" even after spending Rs 20,000 crore on the Namami Gange project. He also asked why the nomination papers of 33 candidates were rejected in the Varanasi constituency during Lok Sabha polls.

"The 'one-third' Pradhan Mantri is visiting Varanasi again, a few weeks after he barely eked out a victory after trailing @kashikirai for multiple rounds of counting. It was a vote of no confidence in him by the people of Varanasi. Here are 9 Varanasi-centric Questions that we had asked him during the campaign, and which we want to remind him of today," Ramesh said in a post on X, tagging Ajay Rai, who was the Congress candidate from Varanasi.

"Why has the 'one-third' Pradhan Mantri's flagship Namami Gange project failed so miserably? After spending Rs 20,000 crore, why has the Ganga gotten dirtier," he asked noting that in 2014, Modi promised a cleaner Ganga through his government's flagship Namami Gange programme. The Ministry of Jal Shakti claims that there has been a marked improvement in the state of the river but, as is often the case with this government, that claim turned out to be "a bold-faced lie", Ramesh alleged.

The "Sankat Mochan Foundation" found that rather than improving, water quality in the Ganga has actually been consistently degrading -- faecal coliform bacteria levels are a staggering one million times "higher than the permissible limit of 500 per 100 millilitres", he noted.

The Central Pollution Control Board also found that water quality does not comply with their standards, he claimed.

"The rot runs so deep in the BJP that their failure to clean our holy river is hardly a surprise. Last year, the Central Pollution Control Board declared the Ganga the most polluted river in India. The 'One third' Pradhan Mantri should clarify: how has he delivered on one of the signature promises he made to the people of the country at the beginning of his tenure as PM," Ramesh asked.

The Congress leader said only seven candidates' nomination papers were accepted for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in 2024, compared to 26 in 2019 and 42 in 2014, claiming that 33 nominations were rejected on the day PM filed his nomination. -- PTI

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