NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Monday came down heavily Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that he break his silence on the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, which flag discrepancies in the database of a centrally sponsored health scheme as well as the high cost of Dwarka Expressway.
Speaking on the eve of the 77th Independence Day, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh alleged that the prime minister will “unleash his torrent of lies” on Tuesday from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Ramesh went on to ask, “But will he have the courage to question his own government and his ministers on their corruption and incompetence?” alleging that the CAG report has exposed the corruption and incompetence of the Modi government.
The Congress MP also pointed out the red flags contained in the CAG report, including the heavily inflated project cost of the Dwarka Expressway, which has gone up by 14 times from the sanctioned ₹18 crore/km to ₹250 crore/km.
A performance audit conducted by the CAG also discovered several discrepancies contained in India’s public health assurance scheme Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) that has led to crores of rupees being spent on ineligible beneficiaries, chiefly due to lack of validation controls. The faults comprise invalid names, unrealistic dates of birth, duplicate health IDs and unrealistic family sizes in the database of AB-PMJAY, as revealed by the government’s auditor report tabled in Parliament.
Ramesh said that the CAG has raised similar questions relating to irregularities made in the Ayodhya Development Project and the old page pension funds under National Social Assistance Programme diverted towards indulging in publicity of the Modi government's schemes instead. Ramesh also demanded answers from the Prime Minister, asking him to break his silence.
Earlier today, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also leveled accusations at the Modi government of corruption in infrastructure projects and said it is taking the nation on a “highway to hell". Kharge cited the CAG report on the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana' highway projects, asking Prime Minister Modi to look within before harping on corruption by his political opponents.
Not to be outdone, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also targeted the ruling BJP, with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal leveling the allegation that the PM Modi-led government has broken "all records of corruption".
"The Modi government has broken all the records of corruption in the past 75 years," Kejriwal said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, sharing a screenshot of a media report on the CAG report.
Rajya Sabha MP and AAP national spokesperson Sanjay Singh also set his target on Modi over the media report and alleged that his government is the "most corrupt" since independence.
"The Narendra Modi government constructed the road (Dwarka Expressway) at the cost of ₹250 crore per kilometer while it was to be constructed at the rate of ₹18 crore per kilometer," he said, citing the CAG report.
Under the 'Bharatmala Pariyojana', Singh said, a total of 75,000 kilometers of roads were to be constructed at the rate of ₹15 crore per kilometer. "But the Narendra Modi government increased the cost to ₹25 crore per kilometer," he claimed.
Singh charged that Modi’s government has committed a scam worth ₹7.5 lakh crore in the Bharatmala project, while asking the prime minister to desist from talking about his government's commitment to end corruption in the country.
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