Ranchi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad today said the Narendra Modi government “is playing the PPP flute” to invite foreign investors in defence and railways to “earn and go away”.
“Now they are playing the PPP (public private partnership) flute to bring FDI in railways and defence. Foreign countries will come to earn and not to serve you (people) halwa (sweet), and then they will go away,” Prasad said at a press conference here.
Reacting to the budget proposals by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the proposal of bringing up 100 modern cities, he said, “They plan to build 100 Shanghai-type cities in India. It is difficult to build even one Shanghai-type city, which may cost our entire annual budget.”
“Is bullet train feasible in our country where thousands of people live along both sides of the tracks? One bullet train would cost you Rs 60,000 crore. And the media is showing footage of bullet trains running in China as if they will come up in India overnight,” Prasad said.
“The (proposed) bullet train route is between Ahmedabad to Mumbai. They think real India only exists there,” Prasad said. “This is again befooling the people, just as the BJP did before the elections, promising jobs and controlling prices... are there any government jobs? ...tomatoes are sold at Rs 60... there are neither any government jobs nor the government is being able to control prices,” Prasad alleged.
Asking “where and what the Gujarat Model” had done, Prasad claimed the Modi government had fallen back on the work done by the UPA regime.
“Jaitley-bhai says don't worry, there is enough food in the stock. Have they produced grains overnight? It has been there since the UPA government,” Prasad said referring to the deficit rainfall that could affect agriculture output.
The former Bihar chief minister also wondered why the BJP government was not “taking forward” the nuclear deal which India had struck with the USA to provide 24 hours electricity. “Yes, the Modi government has worked on one thing, that is renaming programmes already named after Rajiv Gandhi and Nehruji with Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Shyamaprasad Mookerjee,” he said.
“And with the MGNREGA, an assured employment scheme, the government is saying it will review it for asset creation,” Prasad added.
